Now this is a tough one.  Microsoft strictly tells us DON’T edit the Application.Master file found in the _layouts folder.

 

hmmm, maybe just changing the color scheme is possible.?

Even if you setup the Default Content access account correctly, you may still receive Access Denied to websites. I spent the better part of 2 days troubleshooting this.  It seems it wasn’t an SharePoint or Search Server problem, but an IIS problem.

 

If you receive "Failure Audits" for your Default Content account then try this MS article.

 

 

This is the best news I have heard in a long time.

On 2nd April Microsoft announced that SharePoint Designer is no longer available as part of volume licencing, but as a free download. This is great news since SharePoint Designer is a great tool for working with SharePoint and non-SharePoint sites. Click here to see the video interview with Tom Rizzo

or more importantly:

click here to download SharePoint Designer for free (registration required).

I found this jewel of information today,  It provides the correct information to change the service account your Share Point server is running, if the password should expire. (BTW, I don’t recommend using a domain account that password expires.  You should set the domain account to not expire and cannot be changed by user.

 

 KB934838 — Change Service Accounts