How do I update the favicon.ico for my SharePoint 2010 site?

Tired and sick of the stock orange people SharePoint icon that haunts you at every turn in SharePoint? It is quite simple to update the favicon.ico to something a little more appropriate for your site's branding. Just follow the steps outlined below and you will be all set.

1. Upload your new favicon.ico file to a location you can easily manage it. Such as your Site Collection Images library or your SharePoint Hive.
• From the top level of your site or site collection click on All Site Content.
• Under Document Libraries click on Site Collection Images.
• On your ribbon menu at the top, click on Documents and click on Upload Document under the New tab.
• Upload your favicon.ico. Once finished you will need to copy the URL. Unless you made some special changes this will likely be the URL of /SiteCollectionImages/favicon.ico (this is a relative URL as opposed to an absolute URL, it's better... trust me...).
2. From the top level of your site or site collection click on Site Actions and select Edit in SharePoint Designer.
3. Under your Site Objects on the left you will see the Master Pages object. Click on it.
4. On this list you will see a master page called v4.master. Right-click on this and select Edit File in Advanced Mode.
• If prompted to check out, select Yes.
5. In the advanced editor, switch the view from Design (or Split if that is what you have it on) to Code.
• Look for the tabs Design - Split - Code located at the bottom of the screen.
6. You are then going to replace...
   
   <SharePoint:SPShortcutIcon runat="server" IconUrl="/_layouts/images/favicon.ico"/>
   ...with...
   
   <SharePoint:SPShortcutIcon runat="server" IconUrl="/SiteCollectionImages/favicon.ico"/>

1. Save the file.
2. Back on the master pages list, right-click on the v4.master again. This time select Check In. You must check in a major version so this is published. Feel free to add an appropriate note, such as "Updated the favicon for the master page".
3. Click on Ok.
4. Back in your web browser, click on Site Actions and select Site Settings.
5. Under the Galleries heading click on Master pages.
6. In the drop-down menu (indicated by a small triangle) for the v4.master you should get an option to Approve/Decline the publish.
7. Approve and place notes if you feel it is appropriate.

That's it, you may need to clear your browser cache and in some rare cases you may need to have the administrator restart IIS. But, you should now see a nice, new favicon.