Since I've not messed with such settings, I don't know for sure but it seems to me that such settings could be changed on the fly. If his argument holds any salt at all, he should be more than happy to fire up the boxes without the changes, do some demonstrable testing to satisfy you and then add the new settings and do the same demonstrable tests. If you pose such a challenge as education proof rather than a challenge of his knowledge, he might participate. If he doesn't, then his argument for the settings changes don't hold any water because he hasn't proven what he says. Also remember that supposed "Best Practices" fall into several levels....

1. Absolute bunk that enough people have quoted as a "best practice" and have become so just because a million uninformed people are doing it.

2. Conditional in that for general systems, it may be a "best practice" but not for every instance. In other words, it's a guideline to help protect those that might not know deeper details.

3. Documented Microsoft recommendations. These are normally great recommendations but MS doesn't know everything either. They should be treated as you would item #2 above.

4. Demonstrably proven. These are normally the best but with a strong warning. They can and sometimes do fall into 1 of the other 3 categories above because the original hypothesis or method of proof is bunk. Just because someone proves something with code or measurements doesn't mean the code or measurement is actually correct.

So, both you and the other guy need to do the experiment with the spirit of cooperation where the only goal is to prove the given hypothesis one way or the other. Both of you should be very happy to do such a thing because you'll both be given the biggest gift you could ever hope for... knowledge of what is actually true instead of hearsay or conjecture. If the other guy says he's proven it time and again, tell him he should be good at performing such proofs and to please prove it one more time.

Remember that it's not who is right here. It's a matter of what is right for this instance and no egos should come into play because you're both trying to do what is the best for the instance.

Sorry for the lecture on what you probably already know. I'm just trying to encourage both you and him to do the demonstrable testing so that you both know for sure.