There’s some great tips here for improving the default preferences of the operating system:
The ones I used were
defaults write com.apple.finder FXDefaultSearchScope -string "SCcf"
defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode -bool true
defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices LSQuarantine -bool false
defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilte-stack -bool true
defaults write com.apple.frameworks.diskimages auto-open-ro-root -bool true
defaults write com.apple.frameworks.diskimages auto-open-rw-root -bool true
defaults write com.apple.finder OpenWindowForNewRemovableDisk -bool true
defaults write com.apple.finder FXEnableExtensionChangeWarning -bool false
defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu -bool true
chflags nohidden ~/Library
defaults write com.apple.mail AddressesIncludeNameOnPasteboard -bool false