How do I pre-configure a block's settings in my module in Drupal 7?
If you want to set the standard block options, you can do that in hook_block_info

e.g:

/**
 * Implements hook_block_info
 */
function MODULE_block_info() {

  $blocks = array();

  // Assign block to front page, sidebar_first region by default
  $blocks['my_front_page_block'] = array(
    'info' =&gt; t('Front page block'),
    'status' =&gt; 1,
    'region' =&gt; 'sidebar_first',
    'visibility' =&gt; BLOCK_VISIBILITY_LISTED,
    'pages' =&gt; '&lt;front&gt;'
  );

  return $blocks;

}