Hi,


If it's all about general settings, then ...
Maya’s Main Menu > Window > Settings and Preferences >
Preferences.
In the Preference Window, go to the Edit menu and select “Restore Default Settings”.


Another solution i saw on the net, without testing it (I would advise someone to confirm this before doing it) would be :
C:\Documents and Settings\YourSessionName\My documents\maya\version#\prefs , and delete .mel files.
(pluginPrefs, userHotkeys, userNamedCommands, userPrefs, userRunTimeCommands, windowPrefs). Assuming these will be reconstructed by Maya at launch.


Third, and the one i'm really relying on is ...
After installing Maya, plugs, additional tools, etc ... then make a copy of both directories :
C:\Documents and Settings\YourSessionName\My documents\maya\
C:\Program Files\Alias\Maya#\
The reason i'm going this way is because , sometimes, Maya crash so badly that prefs files can be completely or partially unreadable. When i got this situtation, i simply copy/paste both these directories. This is equal to what Vas proposed ya, but it takes only 10 seconds this way.
And your plugs are then already ready to use, as all the additional tools. (well, all what you're installing/ or script adding after Maya install)


Hope you'll find solution with one of these