Q: How Do I Change the Icon on the Sign-In Page in SharePoint 2010?

Problem:

You’ve turned on claims-based authentication for a web application in SharePoint 2010, and you’ve also enabled the “Forms-based authentication” option in the authentication settings for one or more zones. The sign-in page SharePoint displays when you browse to the site has an error icon (red circle with a white X) on it, and you’d like to replace that with a different icon.

Solution:

First, for clarification, there are two default sign-in pages SharePoint might show you. Which one you see depends how you’ve configured claims-based authentication.

If you’ve enabled both Windows and forms-based authentication for a zone, you’ll see the sign-in page depicted in Figure 1. It contains a drop-down list that lets you choose how you’d like to log in. This version of the page is located at {SharePointRoot}\TEMPLATE\IDENTITYMODEL\LOGIN\default.aspx:
 

Figure 1

On the other hand, if you’ve only enabled forms-based authentication (and not Windows), you’ll see the sign-in page depicted in Figure 2. It contains the standard user name and password fields you’d expect to see on a sign-in page. This version of the page is located at {SharePointRoot}\TEMPLATE\IDENTITYMODEL\FORMS\default.aspx:
 

Figure 2

Both pages have the red error icon. Fortunately, the master page used by the sign-in pages places the icon inside an ASP.NET content placeholder, making it easy to change. Here are the steps:
Note: I describe how to do this manually so you can see what’s going on, but as always, I recommend you create a Solution Package (WSP file) for final deployment.
 

1. Go to the location of your current sign-in page (one of the two locations I described above).
2. Copy the “default.aspx” page to a new folder you’ve created (perhaps named after your company) under {SharePointRoot}\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS. That way you’re not changing out-of-the-box files.
3. Open the copied file in a text editor and add the following ASP.NET content tag:
 

4. Save the file.
5. Open Central Administration, and go to the Web Application Management page.
6. Select your web application, and click Authentication Providers in the ribbon.
7. In the dialog that pops up, click the link for the zone where you want your new sign-in page.
8. For the Sign-In Page URL setting, choose “Custom Sign-In Page,” and set the URL to ~/_layouts/YourFolder/default.aspx (or wherever you put your new page).
 

That’s it! Now your sign-in page should have your new icon (see Figure 3 below), and I hope it’s much more user-friendly than the big red X.
 

Figure 3