Create a workbook with every setting you want--always create backup checked,
maybe page layout, headers/footers???
Then save it as book.xlt (as a template) in your XLStart folder.
Then when you click on the new icon, that new workbook will inherit all those
settings from that template.
ps. If you create a template workbook named Sheet.xlt and store it in the same
folder, that one will be used when you add new worksheets to existing workbooks.