WordPress Configuration Tips

When Setting up WordPress for the first time there are a few things you may need to do

Switch off WordPress comment
There is a simple way to shut down the comment system on a WordPress site. Turn off the comments on the Settings, Discussion page, Default article settings, which will disable comments on new posts. Then turn off the comments for all your existing posts.

Switch on Search Engine friendly URLs
The default WordPress uses web URLs which have question marks and lots of numbers in them. To improve this, click on Settings, Permalink Settings and change Custom Structure to read /%postname%/ and then Save Changes.

More Advanced Customisation

To exclude a cagegory or multiple categories from the front page
To block a category from the front page, in the sidebar find <?php wp_list_categories(); ?> and change it to <?php wp_list_categories('exclude=1'); ?> . Find which category number by looking at the category list. To block multiple categories use a comma seperated list like <?php wp_list_categories('exclude=1,4,5'); ?>

To sort categories alphabetically and include only the specified categories use <?php wp_list_categories('orderby=name&include=3,5,9,16'); ?>

For more category configuration possibilities see Codex WordPress Categories

To restrict pages to authenticated users
Check out WP-Sentry