The Find and Replace dialog that comes up using CTRL+F should have the option to set and save your default preferences.
I often work with very large data tables, and I always search for character strings within specific columns. This is easiest using CTRL+F but the default for Restrict to Selected Columns is off. If I ever forget to select this box, my search can end up taking several minutes to search the entire table for the string. Saving my default preferences would completely eliminate this problem.