Here is a little something that has been bothering me for several revisions of SW and until today I was unable to overcome it.....good old Google helped me out big time!!
Whenever I boot SW and open a new part, assembly, or drawing, I have had to go into the option menu and change the units and zeros behind the decimal point. I deal almost exclusively in inches and work to .001, so the default of metric and 2 decimal places was a pain. In addition, if I chose to change the background colour, each new part, etc would have the oem colours. basically any preference set in the document properties is fair game.
I finally found a way to change this, and I thought I'd post it so that I can search it here next time I forget
Navigate to solidworks\data\templates.....inside this folder is three template documents with their file extension ending in ".XXXdot". Open each of these files (you will have to use the "file-type" pulldown menu and either select "types" or look for the .XXXdot extension and select it).
Make any changes you wish, and then save the file.
Alternately, you can open a new part file, make all of the changes you want and then save the file as XXXXXX.prtdot. You then need to point the template to the file you saved.
It seems so simple now, and I'm sure I haven't just invented fire or the wheel, but this is something that has been nagging me since SW 2003.