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When a create a new publishing site within my site collection, a default welcome page for the site is automatically created which always uses the layout file /_catalogs/masterpage/WelcomeLinks.aspx (Welcome page with summary links). This layout is used by default even when it is excluded from the list of allowed layouts.
How can I change things so that a different layout file is used by default?
The default welcome page layout is defined in the OOTB publishing site definition. If you want to set your own welcome page automatically after creating a new publishing site - you have the following options AFAIK:
This is an old thread above, but I had the same problem and found the answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4190576/sharepoint-how-do-i-change-the-default-page-layout-for-newly-created-subsites.
MY first question would be iust what is set up as the default page layout as specified on this page.
http://servername/_Layouts/AreaTemplateSettings.aspx
Could it be that the welcome page is listed here? It looks like you covered this already but worth double checking. This is also set at the Site Collection level. Make sure you double check the context of the site you are working.
