This is my own howto to setup new machines, but you might find it helpful as well.
## General settings
- In Finder -> Preferences set it to show your home folder, hard drives, external drives, filename extensions, etc.
- Make Finder show Library: run
chflags nohidden ~/Library/
within a terminal - Disable holding key pressed to display accents and enable repeat keys: defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false
- In Preferences->Dock Select "Scale Effect" in the "Minimize Using" field and deselect the "Animate Opening Applications" option.