Setting time zones with site-based Group Policy

Question

Setting up a Group policy to configure Time Zones based on site location.

Solution

Change the template host to the desired time zone, then export to a .REG .

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation]
"Bias"=dword:0000012c
"DaylightBias"=dword:ffffffc4
"DaylightName"="@tzres.dll,-111"
"DaylightStart"=hex:00,00,03,00,02,00,02,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
"DynamicDaylightTimeDisabled"=dword:00000000
"StandardBias"=dword:00000000
"StandardName"="@tzres.dll,-112"
"StandardStart"=hex:00,00,0b,00,01,00,02,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
"TimeZoneKeyName"="Eastern Standard Time"
"ActiveTimeBias"=dword:0000012c

Convert the .REG to .XML

-Note:Do not use "Replace" use "update" otherwise when the host does not match a site it will default to the UTC Timezone.

.xml GPP file

Then Pasted the xml into the GPP editor

Setup "Item-level targting" on the properties for each time zone After the policy applies "Some Settings are managed by your organization" will now appear on your time zone settings.

Comments

[Patrick Seymour]

Look into the tzutil utility in Windows.

[tyelford]

I have read that this is not possible but if someone has an answer I would be very interested

[Honk]

@tyelford It's totally possible.

[daniel]

This nearly worked for me, I had to paste the xml file into user configuration instead of computer configuration. I could also do something similar to set 24 hour time, and the date to dd.mm.yyyy Thanks!

[Jonathon Anderson]

On Windows 10, when this registry takes effect, the clock on the taskbar does not update.