Favicon.ico, favicon.gif, … or png, apng, jpg… or any other name, actually are the names of the little picture many websites publish to show their logo next to their web address in most major web browsers these days. The image may be 16×16, 32×32 or 64×64 pixels in size. Traditionally, you had to make it a standard Microsoft .ICO format and give it the exact name favico.ico or it would not work at all. Now you can call it whatever you want, place it where you want and use the format you want too.

To get started, make an icon and decide where to place it within your web. Personally, I tend to put it in the default “root” location of the WordPress installation and calling it favicon.png, but read on for alternatives and why you might want to choose otherwise.

Now, find the file header.php and open it in your favourite text editor. It is in the directory where the current theme resides. Since I at the time of this writing use “blue-server”, the path is (web/*nix style)

/wordpress/wp-content/themes/blue-server/header.php

Inside this file – assuming your file is favico.php, located at the root of your wordpress, add above the other lines starting with <link rel=… a line like this:

<link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="http://yourdomain.com/wordpress/favicon.png">

Save the file and if necessary, upload and replace the original. If you switch view for instance every eason, it would be wise to either keep the favicon file inside each theme directory or to name the favicon properly. Or both.

Bummer – my site got cracked and some person used it to send out spam mail. Because of this I have re-installed the site and I have switched to the lastest version ov WordPress. But of course I had to get the White Screen of Death. Upgrading the database went well, but WSoD after it finished. Fortunately, the solution was simple…: Copy everything important into a new, fresh copy of wp-config.php, fill in the missing code fields and upload. Refresh the page and voilá! NOT!

I then went into the admin screen (via url, since the page was, as I said – blank) and noticed it complained about the current theme. I reset the theme to a default one and refreshed the site. And… And… This time it worked.

So, here we are. New version and new looks.