AD FS 2.0 Sign-In Pages Customization Overview

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Active Directory® Federation Services (AD FS) 2.0 deploys a Web application, called the Sign-In Pages, to handle passive federation requests.

The Sign-In Pages run in Internet Information Services (IIS). They are deployed when the AD FS 2.0 Federation Server Configuration Wizard is run. The pages are located in C:\inetpub\adfs\ls and deployed under the /adfs/ls virtual directory of the Default Web site in IIS. For more information about the AD FS 2.0 Federation Server Configuration Wizard, see Configure a New Federation Server (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=179284).

The Sign-In Pages handle both the WS-Federation passive profile and the SAML WebSSO profile.

The Sign-In Pages expose extensibility points that allow a developer to perform the following customizations:

  1. Change the accepted and default authentication types.

  2. Customize the theme of the Sign-In Pages and add a company logo image.

  3. Customize the behavior and layout of Sign-In Pages that are seen by the end user, such as the Forms Authentication and Home Realm Discovery pages.

These customizations can be done by modifying the Web.config file of the Sign-In Pages Web application or by modifying specific pages. The topics in this section explain the architecture of the Sign-In Pages and show some examples of customization.

To work with the Sign-In Pages in Visual Studio, open them as a Web site. In Visual Studio 2008, open the File menu, select Open, select Web site, and browse to the C:\inetpub\adfs\ls folder.

Important

Do not set the EnableViewState property to true in the Web.config file for the sign-in pages if the EnableViewStateMac property is set to false, as this makes them less secure.