(Emacs 24 assumed). First of all, add the marmalade repo to your .emacs.


(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives
'("marmalade" .
"http://marmalade-repo.org/packages/"))
(package-initialize)


Then with list-packages, install color-theme

Put these in your .emacs to make a life a little more attractive:


;; change font
(set-face-font 'default '"-outline-Consolas-normal-r-normal-normal-14-97-96-96-c-*-iso8859-1"))
(add-hook 'before-make-frame-hook
(lambda ()
(set-frame-font "-outline-Consolas-normal-r-normal-normal-14-97-96-96-c-*-iso8859-1")
))

;; change color-theme
(require 'color-theme)
(color-theme-initialize)
(color-theme-calm-forest)


You might also like to put the below in


(auto-compression-mode t nil (jka-compr))
(case-fold-search t)
(current-language-environment "English")
(default-input-method "rfc1345")
(develock-auto-enable nil)
(efs-use-passive-mode t)
(global-font-lock-mode t nil (font-lock))
(inhibit-startup-screen t)
(query-user-mail-address nil)
(scroll-bar-mode (quote right))
(show-paren-mode t nil (paren))
(time-stamp-format "%02d/%02m/%04y %02H:%02M:%02S %u")
(tool-bar-mode nil nil (tool-bar))
(transient-mark-mode t)
(whitespace-silent t)


And this to stop emacs backup files littering everywhere


;; no backups
(setq
backup-by-copying t ; don't clobber symlinks
backup-directory-alist
'(("." . "~/.emacs.d/.backups")) ; don't litter my fs tree
delete-old-versions t
kept-new-versions 6
kept-old-versions 2
version-control t) ; use versioned backups


Also install the session package and enable the recent file menu


(add-hook 'after-init-hook 'session-initialize)
(recentf-mode 1)


Besides the specific font which you may want to change, all these are applicable to other platforms.