I don't think you can change the default, but you can take advantage of excel's
willingness to remember.
xl likes to remember from one find to the next.
So you could make a dummy workbook and put it in your xlStart folder. Have a
macro in that workbook that does a find (and sets all the stuff the way you
like). Then closes and gets out of the way.
Option Explicit
Sub auto_open()
Worksheets("sheet1").Cells.Find What:="", After:=ActiveCell, _
LookIn:=xlValues, _
LookAt:=xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlByColumns, _
SearchDirection:=xlNext, MatchCase:=False
ThisWorkbook.Close savechanges:=False
End Sub
The workbook opens, does a find (to fix your settings) and then closes to get
out of the way.
If you're new to macros, you may want to read David McRitchie's intro at:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm