Disabling changing the time zone does not work

Question

I have a computer which is used by several users. I would like to disable for these users the option of changing the time zone the system uses.

I found a way how to do this, there's many articles online always describing the same approach of disabling this option via Local Security Policy. One of such articles showing the approach I am using is here:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/129765-allow-prevent-users-groups-change-time-zone-windows-10-a.html#option2

This approach however does not work for me.

When I disable this option via the Local Security Policy editor (by removing the "Users" group in the "Change the time zone" policy), at first everything works as expected. However, after a couple of days the setting of this policy reverts back and the "Users" can suddenly change the time zone again.

I have no idea what is causing the reverting. I tried to research online first of course, I found some tips, what I observed that is not the cause:

1. restarting the system (during the first couple of days a restart of the system does not result in the "Users" being able to change the time zone)
2. windows update (I paused all the updates in Settings/Update & Security/Windows Update, this also did not work)
3. I don't think there are any conflicting policies (I use the Local Security Policy for two things only. One is disabling the time zone change, another one is blocking running a couple of exe files as described here:

https://appuals.com/prevent-users-from-running-specified-windows-applications/ I am definitely not blocking anything that would be related to system time zones. What's also interesting is that the setting of this policy does not change after a couple of days, only the setting of the time zone policy changes.)

4. I am not using any non standard software, so I would say that this is also not a problem.

(I also found some other solutions, but they seem to be relevant rather to network administrators than me as a user of just a single personal machine.)

What I should also note is that I observed this behavior on two different computers of mine, one with Windows 10 as the operating system, and the other one uses Windows 11.

Somebody could help me in figuring out what could cause this time zone policy reverting? I would be very grateful!

Answer 1

Hi Michal Řezáč，

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

The issues on changing the time zone is disabled by the local security policy is out of reach of the response support community. It is more suitable for publishing on Microsoft Learn (English only), you can click on "Ask a question", there are experts who can provide more professional solutions in that place.  Here is a link to the forum where you can raise specific scenarios and share your idea to help solve the problem.I won't be able to help you, but I'll leave that question open in case one of our amazing volunteers has ideas for you.

Thank you for your patience and understanding, please feel free to leave us a message if you have any questions.

Regards,

Manson |Microsoft Community Support Specialist