Ad 1)
Works on my box :}
Ad 2)
Well, a lot of things can be done from the menu
(Options, Customize Emacs, Save Options)
Personally I have Syntax Highlighting on, modified
a few font settings, Row & Column counting
switched on, and a few extensions built into
my .emacs manually... :)
A good site for infos on emacs is the
Wiki
I have a lisp file for more comfortable buffer switching
linked into my .emacs, and ELSE-mode, a minor mode
that is really nice for programming :}
Cheers,
Tink