To get these settings enabled by default, add the lines to your vimrc file, it is usually located at ~/.vimrc if not, just create it. Below is a part of the .vimrc file I like using.
"set tabwidth to 4 characters, automatic indentation and stuff
set tabstop=4 shiftwidth=4
set expandtab
set smarttab
set autoindent
set smartindent
"set searching case insensitive, but if you type uppercase, it will go case sensitive
set ignorecase
set smartcase
"2 lines above/below cursor when scrolling
set scrolloff=2
"show filename in title bar
set title
"show line numbers, and toggle it on/off with F2
set number
map :set invnumber
"toggle wrapping mode with Ctrl+w
map :set invwrap
"Reload Current File, ask for confirmation if changed
map :confirm :edit
"automatically cd into the directory that the file is in, very useful when running commands within vi
autocmd BufEnter * execute "chdir ".escape(expand("%:p:h"), ' ')
"highlight the current line, when you split screen, it will only highlight the line that has focus on
hi CursorLine cterm=NONE ctermbg=blue ctermfg=NONE
autocmd WinEnter * setlocal cursorline
autocmd WinLeave * setlocal nocursorline
set cursorline
"set encoding to utf-8
set encoding=utf-8
"highlight search results
set hlsearch
"search while typing
set incsearch
