Language: (General category, General tab) FreeCAD will automatically pick the language of your operating system, but you might want to change that. FreeCAD is almost fully translated into five or six languages; others are currently only partially translated. You can easily help translating FreeCAD.
Auto-load module: (General category, General tab) Normally, FreeCAD will start by showing you the start page. You can skip this and begin a FreeCAD session directly in the workbench of your choice, listed under Startup, Auto load module after startup. Workbenches will be explained in detail in the next chapter.
Create new document at startup: (General category, Document tab) Combined with the Auto-load module option above, if checked this starts FreeCAD ready for work.
Storage options: (General category, Document tab) As with any complex application, FreeCAD likely contains bugs causing it to crash occasionally. Here you can configure options to help you to recover your work in case of a crash.
Authoring and license: (General category, Document tab) Here you set the values to be used for new files you create. Consider making your files shareable right from the start, by using a friendlier, copyleft license like Creative Commons.
Redirect internal python messages: (General category, Output window tab) These two options are always good to check, as they will cause messages from the internal python interpreter to show up in the Report View when there's a problem running a python script.
Units: (General category, Units tab) Here you can set the default units system you wish to use.
Zoom at cursor: (Display category, 3D tab) If set, zoom operations will be focused at the mouse pointer. If unset, the center of the current view is the zoom focus.
Invert zoom: (Display category, 3D tab) Inverts the direction of zooming relative to mouse movement.
