Anyone that's poked through the options should know most these already, but for those of you that haven't (yet), there are a ton of things you can change that will make you life easier. Some of these are already covered in /u/EndoFury's "Welcome to Elite Dangerous new Commanders" post from a few months ago, but I wanted to come up with a more comprehensive list.

If there's something I didn't think of, let me know in the comments! Fly safe, commanders.

Graphics

• Dashboard Brightness: Same as the "Interface Brightness" setting in your right-hand side HUD, I think the default is set to 7 or 8. I tuned mine down to 5.

• Disable GUI Effects: This turns off the "loading" transition whenever you look at a HUD menu, go into Starport Services, etc. The main benefit is that the HUD & menus will feel more responsive instead of having a short delay.

Audio

• DTS Headphone: Most headphone users want to enable this for a more immersive sound experience. Doesn't work with speakers. See this thread for more info on whether you should turn it on or not.

• Music: You can selectively mute music depending on the situation.

• Ship Voice Volume: This is personal preference, but here are some you may want to turn OFF. Not recommended if you need sound cues to pull your attention away from Netflix.

  • Frame Shift Drive Countdown: countdown will beep instead.
  • Engage: leave on if you really, really like Jean Luc Picard.
  • Docking/Undocking Success: obvious sound & UI cues
  • Fuel Scoop Engaged/Disengaged: obvious sound & UI cues

• Callsign: Changes what stations call you when you jump near a station and dock.

• Galnet Audio: The default volume seems a bit loud, so I turned mine down a few notches.

Controls

• Bind keys for the following so you don't need to set them in fire groups to use them.

  • Cooling: Deploy Heatsink
  • Miscellaneous: Use Shield Cell
  • Miscellaneous: Use Chaff Launcher

• Flight Throttle: Bind a key to "Set Speed to 75%" (!!! NOT -75% !!!) When in supercruise, hit this button and it will take you all the way into your destination and wont overshoot. If you want to get there faster, press this key when your time remaining to reach your destination is at 7s, when going full throttle. On consoles, I suggest binding it to LB RB on Xbox or L1 R1 on PS4.

• Targeting: Switch your bind for "Cycle Next Subsystem" to "Cycle Previous Subsystem" — it'll cycle to the power plant faster.

• Targeting: Bind a key to "Target Next System in Route" so that if you have a route plotted and target anything else, you can quickly target the next system to jump to in your route again. I suggest B clicking LS on Xbox or O clicking LS on PS4.

• Flight Miscellaneous: Change the bind for "Engine Boost" to something else if you find yourself accidentally boosting into walls instead of deploying landing gear. (thanks /u/brighterwings)

edit:

Bonus: Free* stuff in the Frontier store

• Military Flight Suit Pack (*requires Horizons season pass)
• Avatar Plastic Framed Glasses
• Avatar Metal Framed Glasses
• Powerplay Decal Pack