If your are computer technician or some variation of and have been familiar enough with how to create a DEFAULT profile in Windows XP that contains the settings of your choosing so that anyone who logs into your configured computer, will have all of the initial desktop settings of your choosing, you understand that this was fairly easy using Windows' (XP) COPY TO function.  Up until now this has been an easy task, however, with Windows Vista and Windows 7, Microsoft decided to take away this simple feature because they believe we should all know 100% how to use SYSPREP to create default profiles.  This is the Microsoft supported way of changing the DEFAULT profile and if you feel this is the route you want to attempt then please refer too:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;959753

Below I will list the steps for another more direct and easier method of creating a DEFAULT profile with the settings of your choosing.  This method is not supported by Microsoft but I personally have performed these steps on a dozen computers in which multiple users access and have had no problems with it and, furthermore, have read other blogs of technicians who have used this method without issues.

1.  Create a generic user account with administrator rights and log into this account.  We will say our account was created with "Owner" as the account name for this example.

2.  Adjust the desktop settings to your standards (desktop settings, shortcuts, favorites, etc.).

3.  Once the Owner profile settings have been configured, reboot your computer, and log into the local administrator account or another user account with administrator access other than the Owner account.

4.  Make sure that hidden files and folders are marked as UNHIDDEN.  Do this by navigating to:  SELECT Computer icon > SELECT Organize button and SELECT Folder and Search Options > SELECT the View tab and SELECT the option "Show hidden files, folders, or drives" >  Click OK

Tip:  During STEP 5 you may take a look at the size of the Owner profile folder and if it is any larger than 20 Megabytes, you may want to trace out which folder inside the Owner profile folder contains all the data.  Often times Windows will create a slew of temporary junk files while you are setting up the first user profile and you do not want your computer creating several new profiles each with 100 Megabytes of junk data which is going to fill up your hard drive quickly.  Feel free to delete any items in folders named "Temp". 

5.  Navigate to C:\Users > Rename the "Default" profile folder with the name "OLD_Default".  Then rename the "Owner" profile folder with the name "Default".  Right click on the recently named Default profile folder and SELECT Properties > Check the attribute "Hidden" and click OK (you only want to make the Default folder hidden, not subfolders or files).

6.  At this point you can delete the Owner user account if you wish since it will no longer be used directly.  You can do this by right clicking the Computer icon on the desktop and SELECT Manage > Highlight Local Users and Groups > SELECT Users > Delete the Owner account.

7.  Reboot the computer and from now on any new users that log into the computer will pull the desktop settings you specifiied and you are finished.