In the root of the server share, is there shortcuts to anywhere else.
I have seen massive folder hangs because say \\server\share$ had shortcuts to places within the share, places outwith the share etc etc etc - this issue manifested itself in the strangest of ways, opening up the folder shortcut and more curiously, inserting hyperlinks into emails.
I think that's a weird "by design" option. It's been bugging me for months. Typically when I expand folders, it's very distracting to have the expanded folder jump to the bottom of the left pane. It just requires me to constantly scroll down whenever I want to enter several sub-folders deep.
Anyway, I found something that seems to fix it for me.
I hit the Start Button...and type "edit group policy". In the Local Group Policy Editor, I went to:
User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer
Then I enabled "Turn on Classic Shell".
So far I'm not sure what else this changes in Windows Explorer, but at least for the time being, my folders aren't jumping to the bottom when I expand them.
*edit* - On second thought, I guess it is still jumping on folders that I haven't been in before. I realize you said that in your post, but prior to changing that setting, it was jumping on me regardless of if I'd been in the folder previously. =[