Note
Access to this page requires authorization. You can try signing in or changing directories.
Access to this page requires authorization. You can try changing directories.
Question
Thursday, January 28, 2016 6:20 PM
I am having an issue where all of our windows 10 computers (Microsoft Surface Pro 4) have the wrong time. The users on these devices are not administrators, and should have the ability to change their timezone depending on location.
The problem is that all of our network locations flow through our corporate offices in Ohio, and by looking at the public IP, it will determine the location as Ohio, so the "Automatically set timezone" feature is constantly setting their time back to EST. The "Automatically set timezone" feature can be turned off, but only by an administrator.
Is there a GPO or Registry key that I can change to disable with "Automatically set timezone" feature so I don't have to touch 150+ devices?
All replies (11)
Tuesday, February 2, 2016 9:13 PM ✅Answered | 2 votes
I found the settings I was looking for.
It's controlled by the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\tzautoupdate\Start
To turn off "Set Time zone automatically" The DWORD value should be 4.
To turn it on The DWORD value should be 3.
Thursday, January 28, 2016 6:23 PM
Try one of these.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time
What you are looking for may be in there.
Please remember to select Mark as Answer if someone provides the answer or mark as helpful if the response helps to lead you in the right direction.
Thursday, January 28, 2016 6:40 PM
The setting for "Automatically set timezone" does not appear to be any of the settings in there.
I'm going to confirm this by changing the setting in windows and looking for any differences in the registry, but I doubt I'll have much luck.
Thursday, January 28, 2016 6:59 PM
You could try creating a OU for the machines that you want to set to an alternate time zone, then create a GPO for them and have the Group Policy run a simple batch file as a startup script in the computer policy that runs tzutil /s "whatever time zone" and that will at least get all of those machines in the correct time zone each time they start up. Just an idea. I have not tested this.
Please remember to select Mark as Answer if someone provides the answer or mark as helpful if the response helps to lead you in the right direction.
Thursday, January 28, 2016 7:33 PM
That's not really an option, especially because a good number of these people are remote and travel most of the time, I don't want to lock in their timezone, but I do want them to have the option to change it.
Thank you for the idea though!
Thursday, January 28, 2016 7:55 PM
Try this. In GP, Go to Computer configuration, policies, Windows settings, Security settings, Local policies, User Rights Assignment and configure "Change the Time Zone." This policy sets who is, and isn't allowed to change the time zone settings on a machine. Just another shot in the dark. I hope it works.
There isn't a lot of information on the automatically set timezone and how to turn it off.
Change the Time Zone
*This user right determines which users and groups can change the time zone used by the computer for displaying the local time, which is the computer's system time plus the time zone offset. System time itself is absolute and is not affected by a change in the time zone. *
*This user right is defined in the Default Domain Controller Group Policy object (GPO) and in the local security policy of the workstations and servers. *
Please remember to select Mark as Answer if someone provides the answer or mark as helpful if the response helps to lead you in the right direction.
Friday, January 29, 2016 1:46 PM
Users were already permitted to change the time zone, I allowed Users to change the system time, but this didn't make a difference.
Monday, February 1, 2016 12:36 PM
Hi,
Please check if you configured any time server for your customers:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DateTime\Servers
If so, change to a global internet time server.
In addition, you can try to deploy the GPP with the internet time server so that the PC can automatically sync the time zone.
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact tnmff@microsoft.com.
Monday, February 1, 2016 1:06 PM
The servers listed in there are time.windows.com and time.nist.gov, although I think they are set to syncronize (time, not timezone) with the domain.
I'm not sure that deploying an internet time server would solve my problems, because the new Windows 10 "Automatically set time zone" feature seems to override any manually set timezone (set by the user) unless an administrator disables this feature. Doesn't syncing with an internet time server just sync time, not time zone anyway?
Friday, August 26, 2016 5:59 PM
I am having this issue also. Even though the registry settings are correct for tzautoupdate, normal users and local admins cannot see the option to auto update timezone. Only domain admins can see that function.
Tuesday, October 16, 2018 9:02 PM
Had the same problem. This solved it.
Update - Local Security Policy