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Windows 10 – Enable Automatic TimeZone

During the deployment of Windows 10 in a multi countries company, you will be facing an issue with the laptops moving regularly from one country to another. The Windows 10 Automatic Timezone service is not enabled by default during the installation.

This means that the laptops will always keep the time from its origin country and it will not change the hours automatically based on the current country.

In fact, you need to configure it using Group Policy Object (GPO).

Windows 10 Automatic Timezone

Windows 10 Automatic Timezone

Let’s see how to configure it and how the users can see and interact with this service.

Standard User vs Admin User

Strangely for this function, a standard user cannot modify the Automatic Timezone but an Admin user could do it. More than that, the standard user does not even see the option in the Settings/ Time & Language / Date & Time control panel.

Standard User Date Time Options

Standard User Date Time Options

Admin User Date Time Options

Admin User Date Time Options

Localization Service

Automatic timezone uses the Windows 10 localization feature to detect the current country. In order to change the time, you need to be sure that the user enables the option in Action Center.

Localization feature Action Center

Localization feature Action Center

Set Automatic Timezone by GPO

Automatic timezone is controlled by a registry key:

  • Path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\tzautoupdate\
  • Key: Start
  • Value: 3
  • Type: dword

You can use Group Policy Preference to modify this registry key:

GPPref Registry Key Timezone

GPPref Registry Key Timezone

GPO Details

GPO Details

You need to refresh the GPO on the target computer with gpupdate /force and also need to reboot to computer to take effects:

Detect Timezone enabled

Detect Timezone enabled

More

You can get more information about Timezone and country here.

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