When screen is started, it reads its configuration parameters from /etc/screenrc and ~/.screenrc if the file is present.

The /etc/screenrc file:

/etc/screenrc

# $Id: screenrc,v 1.15 2003/10/08 11:39:03 zal Exp $
#
# /etc/screenrc
#
#   This is the system wide screenrc.
#
#   You can use this file to change the default behavior of screen system wide
#   or copy it to ~/.screenrc and use it as a starting point for your own
#   settings.
#
#   Commands in this file are used to set options, bind screen functions to
#   keys, redefine terminal capabilities, and to automatically establish one or
#   more windows at the beginning of your screen session.
#
#   This is not a comprehensive list of options, look at the screen manual for
#   details on everything that you can put in this file.
#
 
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# SCREEN SETTINGS
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
#startup_message off
#nethack on
 
#defflow on # will force screen to process ^S/^Q
deflogin on
#autodetach off
 
# turn visual bell on
vbell on
vbell_msg "   Wuff  ----  Wuff!!  "
 
# define a bigger scrollback, default is 100 lines
defscrollback 1024
 
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# SCREEN KEYBINDINGS
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
# Remove some stupid / dangerous key bindings
bind ^k
#bind L
bind ^\
# Make them better
bind \\ quit
bind K kill
bind I login on
bind O login off
bind } history
 
# An example of a "screen scraper" which will launch urlview on the current
# screen window
#
#bind ^B eval "hardcopy_append off" "hardcopy -h $HOME/.screen-urlview" "screen urlview $HOME/.screen-urlview"
 
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# TERMINAL SETTINGS
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
# The vt100 description does not mention "dl". *sigh*
termcapinfo vt100 dl=5\E[M
 
# turn sending of screen messages to hardstatus off
hardstatus off
# Set the hardstatus prop on gui terms to set the titlebar/icon title
termcapinfo xterm*|rxvt*|kterm*|Eterm* hs:ts=\E]0;:fs=\007:ds=\E]0;\007
# use this for the hard status string
hardstatus string "%h%? users: %u%?"
 
# An alternative hardstatus to display a bar at the bottom listing the
# windownames and highlighting the current windowname in blue. (This is only
# enabled if there is no hardstatus setting for your terminal)
#
#hardstatus lastline "%-Lw%{= BW}%50>%n%f* %t%{-}%+Lw%<"
 
# set these terminals up to be 'optimal' instead of vt100
termcapinfo xterm*|linux*|rxvt*|Eterm* OP
 
# Change the xterm initialization string from is2=\E[!p\E[?3;4l\E[4l\E>
# (This fixes the "Aborted because of window size change" konsole symptoms found
#  in bug #134198)
termcapinfo xterm 'is=\E[r\E[m\E[2J\E[H\E[?7h\E[?1;4;6l'
 
# To get screen to add lines to xterm's scrollback buffer, uncomment the
# following termcapinfo line which tells xterm to use the normal screen buffer
# (which has scrollback), not the alternate screen buffer.
#
#termcapinfo xterm|xterms|xs|rxvt ti@:te@
 
# Enable non-blocking mode to better cope with flaky ssh connections.
defnonblock 5
 
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# STARTUP SCREENS
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
# Example of automatically running some programs in windows on screen startup.
#
#   The following will open top in the first window, an ssh session to monkey
#   in the next window, and then open mutt and tail in windows 8 and 9
#   respectively.
#
# screen top
# screen -t monkey ssh monkey
# screen -t mail 8 mutt
# screen -t daemon 9 tail -f /var/log/daemon.log

This adds a customized status line and few additional options:

~/.screenrc

# Turn off the welcome message.
startup_message off
 
# Disable visual bell.
vbell off
 
# Set scrollback buffer to 10000.
defscrollback 10000
 
# Customize the status line.
hardstatus alwayslastline
hardstatus string '%{= kG}[ %{G}%H %{g}][%= %{= kw}%?%-Lw%?%{r}(%{W}%n*%f%t%?(%u)%?%{r})%{w}%?%+Lw%?%?%= %{g}][%{B} %m-%d %{W}%c %{g}]'