How to set Favicon to the SharePoint 2010 site

SharePoint 2010 comes with a orange Favicon and the image is present in following location
SharePoint Root Folder\Template\Images
[eg. C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\IMAGES\].

Open this folder and search for favicon.ico and rename the file to FaviconBackup.ico.
Now copy your favicon to this folder and make sure it's named as "favicon.ico".
Now restart IIS(open Command Prompt -> IISReset), clear browser cache/temproary internet files.
Close the browser and reopen then browse the SharePoint site.

If mulitple sites are hosted in same farm and need to set different favicons for different sites then we have to update Master Page Code.
Open the site with SharePoint Designer 2010 and select Master pages -> v4.master. The default.master is still present in SharePoint 2010 for backward compatibility and visual upgrade.
But SharePoint 2010 uses v4.master only. Now click "Edit File" link to add the favicon code. If it asks for check out, click yes and continue.

Find the following line in the master page:


<SharePoint:SPShortcutIcon runat="server" IconUrl="/_layouts/images/favicon.ico" />


and change the path of favicon.
e.g.:
<SharePoint:SPShortcutIcon runat="server" IconUrl="/_layouts/images/brickred/favicon.ico" />


Save and close (If you have checked out then you need to check in and site collection administrator has to approve it via Site Settings -> Galleries -> Master pages and page layouts -> Check in and Approve).

Now reset IIS/clear browser cache and check.