If you are using Androids settings menu to provide your users with settings, you can set default values when the application is first started.

The details are explained in further details in the “Defaults” section in the documentation.

However, the short version is this:

In your preferences.xml file, where you specify your different setting items, use the android:defaultValue attribute to specify the settings default value.

<!-- default value is a boolean -->  
<CheckBoxPreference  
 android:defaultValue="true"
 ... 
 />

Then, in your applications main onCreate() method, you make a call to the PerferenceManager, telling it to read and apply the defaultvalues for all your preference items:

PreferenceManager.setDefaultValues(this, R.xml.advanced_preferences, false);  

The last parameter, false, tells the preferencemanager to only apply the default values the first time the method is called. (This way it will not overwrite the settings at a later time)