Windows OS Hub / Windows 10 / Changing Time Zone Settings in Windows via CMD, PowerShell, and GPO

August 4, 2021 PowerShell Windows 10 Windows Server 2019

Changing Time Zone Settings in Windows via CMD, PowerShell, and GPO

Time zone, along with time and date, is one of the critical parameters of a computer. For Windows and applications to work correctly, the time zone must be set in accordance with the geographic location of the computer. In this article, we’ll take a look at how to change the time zone in Windows from the GUI, Command Prompt, PowerShell, and using Group Policy.

The new Settings app is used in Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019/2016 to set the date and time zone. You can set the time zone from the GUI by right-clicking on the clock icon in the system tray and selecting Adjust date/time. By default, Windows tries to automatically select the time zone (the Set time zone automatically option is enabled). You can disable this option and set the required time zone manually by selecting it in the drop-down list.

Tip. You can also use the classic “Date and Time” Control Panel applet to change the time zone settings in Windows. Run the command timedate.cpl.

Contents:

Allow or Prevent Users to Change Time Zone in Windows
TZUtil.exe: How to Change the Time Zone in Windows 10 CMD?
Setting Windows Time Zone via PowerShell
Configuring the Time Zone Using the Group Policy
Can’t Change Time Zone on Windows Server 2019 /Windows 10: You Do Not Have Permission

Allow or Prevent Users to Change Time Zone in Windows

By default, a user doesn’t need the administrator permissions to change the time zone (unlike changing date/time). This behavior can be changed using the Local Security Settings console (secpol.msc). Go to Security Settings -> Local Policy -> User Rights Assignment. The policy?is called Change the time zone. As you can see, the time zone can be changed by the system, administrators, and all users. To prevent users from changing the time zone, remove the Users group from the list of accounts in this policy.

In Windows Server, only the Local Service and administrators have the privileges to change the time zone.

In Hyper-V Server and Windows Server Core, you can set the time zone using the built-in sconfig utility.

TZUtil.exe: How to Change the Time Zone in Windows 10 CMD?

To change the time zone in Windows 11/10/8.1 and Windows Server 2019/2016/2012 R2/, a special command-line tool tzutil.exe (Windows Time Zone Utility) is used. It first appeared in Windows 7. The tool’s executable file is located in %WINDIR%\System32 directory.

Let’s consider the features and capabilities of TZUtil.exe tool.

Run the command prompt (cmd.exe). To find out the current time zone and its identifier (TimeZoneID), run the command:

tzutil /g

In this example, Pacific Standard Time is the current time zone identifier.

Display the list of all available time zones as follows:
tzutil /l

TimeZone Id	 | 	TimeZone  DisplayName
Dateline Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-12:00) International Date Line West
UTC-11	 | 	(UTC-11:00) Coordinated Universal Time-11
Aleutian Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-10:00) Aleutian Islands
Hawaiian Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-10:00) Hawaii
Marquesas Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-09:30) Marquesas Islands
Alaskan Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-09:00) Alaska
UTC-09	 | 	(UTC-09:00) Coordinated Universal Time-09
Pacific Standard Time (Mexico)	 | 	(UTC-08:00) Baja California
UTC-08	 | 	(UTC-08:00) Coordinated Universal Time-08
Pacific Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)
US Mountain Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-07:00) Arizona
Mountain Standard Time (Mexico)	 | 	(UTC-07:00) Chihuahua, La Paz, Mazatlan
Mountain Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-07:00) Mountain Time (US & Canada)
Central America Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-06:00) Central America
Central Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada)
Easter Island Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-06:00) Easter Island
Central Standard Time (Mexico)	 | 	(UTC-06:00) Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey
Canada Central Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-06:00) Saskatchewan
SA Pacific Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-05:00) Bogota, Lima, Quito, Rio Branco
Eastern Standard Time (Mexico)	 | 	(UTC-05:00) Chetumal
Eastern Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Haiti Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-05:00) Haiti
Cuba Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-05:00) Havana
US Eastern Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-05:00) Indiana (East)
Turks And Caicos Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-05:00) Turks and Caicos
Paraguay Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-04:00) Asuncion
Atlantic Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-04:00) Atlantic Time (Canada)
Venezuela Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-04:00) Caracas
Central Brazilian Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-04:00) Cuiaba
SA Western Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-04:00) Georgetown, La Paz, Manaus, San Juan
Pacific SA Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-04:00) Santiago
Newfoundland Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-03:30) Newfoundland
Tocantins Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-03:00) Araguaina
E. South America Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-03:00) Brasilia
SA Eastern Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-03:00) Cayenne, Fortaleza
Argentina Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-03:00) City of Buenos Aires
Greenland Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-03:00) Greenland
Montevideo Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-03:00) Montevideo
Magallanes Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-03:00) Punta Arenas
Saint Pierre Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-03:00) Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Bahia Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-03:00) Salvador
UTC-02	 | 	(UTC-02:00) Coordinated Universal Time-02
Mid-Atlantic Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-02:00) Mid-Atlantic - Old
Azores Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-01:00) Azores
Cape Verde Standard Time	 | 	(UTC-01:00) Cabo Verde Is.
UTC	 | 	(UTC) Coordinated Universal Time
Morocco Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+00:00) Casablanca
GMT Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+00:00) Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London
Greenwich Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+00:00) Monrovia, Reykjavik
W. Europe Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+01:00) Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
Central Europe Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+01:00) Belgrade, Bratislava, Budapest, Ljubljana, Prague
Romance Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+01:00) Brussels, Copenhagen, Madrid, Paris
Sao Tome Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+01:00) Sao Tome
Central European Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+01:00) Sarajevo, Skopje, Warsaw, Zagreb
W. Central Africa Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+01:00) West Central Africa
Jordan Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+02:00) Amman
GTB Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+02:00) Athens, Bucharest
Middle East Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+02:00) Beirut
Egypt Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+02:00) Cairo
E. Europe Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+02:00) Chisinau
Syria Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+02:00) Damascus
West Bank Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+02:00) Gaza, Hebron
South Africa Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+02:00) Harare, Pretoria
FLE Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+02:00) Helsinki, Kyiv, Riga, Sofia, Tallinn, Vilnius
Israel Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+02:00) Jerusalem
Kaliningrad Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+02:00) Kaliningrad
Sudan Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+02:00) Khartoum
Libya Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+02:00) Tripoli
Namibia Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+02:00) Windhoek
Arabic Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+03:00) Baghdad
Turkey Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+03:00) Istanbul
Arab Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+03:00) Kuwait, Riyadh
Belarus Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+03:00) Minsk
Russian Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+03:00) Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd
E. Africa Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+03:00) Nairobi
Iran Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+03:30) Tehran
Arabian Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+04:00) Abu Dhabi, Muscat
Astrakhan Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+04:00) Astrakhan, Ulyanovsk
Azerbaijan Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+04:00) Baku
Russia Time Zone 3	 | 	(UTC+04:00) Izhevsk, Samara
Mauritius Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+04:00) Port Louis
Saratov Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+04:00) Saratov
Georgian Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+04:00) Tbilisi
Caucasus Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+04:00) Yerevan
Afghanistan Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+04:30) Kabul
West Asia Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+05:00) Ashgabat, Tashkent
Ekaterinburg Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+05:00) Ekaterinburg
Pakistan Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+05:00) Islamabad, Karachi
India Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+05:30) Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi
Sri Lanka Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+05:30) Sri Jayawardenepura
Nepal Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+05:45) Kathmandu
Central Asia Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+06:00) Astana
Bangladesh Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+06:00) Dhaka
Omsk Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+06:00) Omsk
Myanmar Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+06:30) Yangon (Rangoon)
SE Asia Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+07:00) Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta
Altai Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+07:00) Barnaul, Gorno-Altaysk
W. Mongolia Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+07:00) Hovd
North Asia Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+07:00) Krasnoyarsk
N. Central Asia Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+07:00) Novosibirsk
Tomsk Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+07:00) Tomsk
China Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+08:00) Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong, Urumqi
North Asia East Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+08:00) Irkutsk
Singapore Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+08:00) Kuala Lumpur, Singapore
W. Australia Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+08:00) Perth
Taipei Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+08:00) Taipei
Ulaanbaatar Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+08:00) Ulaanbaatar
North Korea Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+08:30) Pyongyang
Aus Central W. Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+08:45) Eucla
Transbaikal Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+09:00) Chita
Tokyo Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+09:00) Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo
Korea Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+09:00) Seoul
Yakutsk Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+09:00) Yakutsk
Cen. Australia Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+09:30) Adelaide
AUS Central Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+09:30) Darwin
E. Australia Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+10:00) Brisbane
AUS Eastern Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+10:00) Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney
West Pacific Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+10:00) Guam, Port Moresby
Tasmania Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+10:00) Hobart
Vladivostok Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+10:00) Vladivostok
Lord Howe Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+10:30) Lord Howe Island
Bougainville Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+11:00) Bougainville Island
Russia Time Zone 10	 | 	(UTC+11:00) Chokurdakh
Magadan Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+11:00) Magadan
Norfolk Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+11:00) Norfolk Island
Sakhalin Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+11:00) Sakhalin
Central Pacific Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+11:00) Solomon Is., New Caledonia
Russia Time Zone 11	 | 	(UTC+12:00) Anadyr, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
New Zealand Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+12:00) Auckland, Wellington
UTC+12	 | 	(UTC+12:00) Coordinated Universal Time+12
Fiji Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+12:00) Fiji
Kamchatka Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+12:00) Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky - Old
Chatham Islands Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+12:45) Chatham Islands
UTC+13	 | 	(UTC+13:00) Coordinated Universal Time+13
Tonga Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+13:00) Nuku'alofa
Samoa Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+13:00) Samoa
Line Islands Standard Time	 | 	(UTC+14:00) Kiritimati Island

The current list of time zones in Windows from Microsoft is available here

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/default-time-zones.

If you want to quickly find all available time zones (for example, with an UTC -6 offset), run the command:

tzutil /l | find /I "utc-06"

Change the current time zone to (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada):
tzutil /s "Eastern Standard Time"

The current time zone is stored in the Windows registry. You can check that it changed like this:
reg query HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation

To disable daylight saving time for a specific time zone, you must specify the time zone identifier with the suffix _dstoff, for example:

tzutil /s “Central European Standard Time_dstoff”

This command will change the computer’s time zone and disable the seasonal clock change.

You can display complete information about the time zone and daylight-saving time settings as follows:

w32tm /tz

Time zone: Current:TIME_ZONE_ID_UNKNOWN Bias: 480min (UTC=LocalTime+Bias)
[Standard Name:"Pacific Standard Time" Bias:0min Date:(unspecified)]
[Daylight Name:"Pacific Standard Time" Bias:0min Date:(unspecified)]

To change the time zone from the command prompt in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, you had to use the following commands

RunDLL32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL timedate.cpl,,/Z Central America Standard Time

or:

Control.exe TIMEDATE.CPL,,/Z Central America Standard Time

Setting Windows Time Zone via PowerShell

You can get the current time zone settings from the PowerShell console. Run the command:

[TimeZoneInfo]::Local

Get-TimeZone

Id???????????????????????? : Pacific Standard Time DisplayName??????????????? : (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) StandardName?????????????? : Pacific Standard Time DaylightName?????????????? : Pacific Standard Time BaseUtcOffset?????? ???????: -08:00:00 SupportsDaylightSavingTime : False

To view all the time zones available in Windows, you can use the PowerShell command:

[System.TimeZoneInfo]::GetSystemTimeZones()
or
Get-TimeZone -ListAvailable

The list of time zones is quite long. To find the name of the required time zone, use the PowerShell filtering options:

Get-TimeZone -ListAvailable | Where-Object {$_.displayname -like "*canada*"}

or:

Get-TimeZone -ListAvailable | Where-Object {$_.Id -like "*euro*"}

You can list all time zones in alphabetical order:

Get-TimeZone -ListAvailable | Select Id | Sort Id

To change the current time zone from PowerShell, run the command

Set-TimeZone -Name "US Eastern Standard Time"

PowerShell version 5.1 is used in these examples, but they also work in newer versions.

Configuring the Time Zone Using the Group Policy

You can use Group Policy to configure time zone on computers in an Active Directory domain. There are no built-in policy parameters in the GPO for configuring the time zone. The two most commonly used options for setting the time zone through the GPO are using the GPO logon script or by importing the time zone settings into the registry.

To set the time zone using a GPO logon script, you can use a simple PowerShell script (it works for all versions of Windows starting from Windows XP and Windows Server 2003):

$timeZone = "Central Europe Daylight Time" $WinOSVerReg = Get-Item "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion" $WinOSVer = $WinOSVerReg.GetValue("CurrentVersion") if ($WinOSVer -GE 6){ tzutil.exe /s $timeZone } Else { $params = "/c Start `"Change timeZone`" /MIN %WINDIR%\System32\Control.exe TIMEDATE.CPL,,/Z " $params += $timeZone $proc = [System.Diagnostics.Process]::Start( "CMD.exe", $params ) }

Another way to set the time zone for domain-joined computers is to import the contents of the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation registry key from the reference computer with the properly configured time settings to other computers via GPO. This article describes how to import the registry parameters via Group Policy.

Select this registry key with all the parameters using the Registry Browser. As a result, all time zone settings will be imported into the GPO editor (Computer Configuration -> Preferences -> Windows Settings -> Registry).

If you want to use different time zone settings for different Active Directory sites, use the GPP Item Level Targeting to target the specific time zone settings to the AD site.

If you are using an RDS infrastructure, and the users and RDSH servers are configured with different time zones, then the server time will be displayed in the user’s RDP sessions. It is not convenient. You can redirect the user’s local time zone to an RDP session using the Allow time zone redirection GPO parameter (Computer Configuration > Policies -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote Desktop Session Host -> Device and Resource Redirection.

Can’t Change Time Zone on Windows Server 2019 /Windows 10: You Do Not Have Permission

Windows Server 2019 RTM and some Windows 10 builds contain an annoying error with the time zone setting through the GUI. If you try to change the time zone from the modern Settings app or via the classic Control Panel applet, an error appears:

Date and time
Unable to continue.
You do not have permission to perform this task. Please contact your computer administrator for help.

First, make sure that you are login Windows under an account with administrator privileges and that the Administrators group is present in the Change Time Zone local security policy settings.

As a workaround, in this case, you will have to change the timezone from the command line:

tzutil /l tzutil /s "Central Europe Standard Time"

or PowerShell:

GetTimeZone -ListAvailable|? DisplayName -like "*Berlin*"|Set-TimeZone

If you want to change the time zone setting from the graphical interface, you need to tun the timedate.cpl applet from the elevated command prompt or open it from the Server Manager (Local Server -> Time zone).

The time zone in the Exchange (Microsoft 365) mailbox is set on the first connection according to the Windows user profile settings.

Hyper-V: Enabling Routing Between Internal Networks (Subnets)

5 comments

Mauricio Lasen April 13, 2016 - 5:58 pm

gracias! excelente articulo, funciona la GPO.!
saludos

Mauricio Lasen April 14, 2016 - 9:21 pm

el ultimo sript en powershell no funciona!!
No se puede cargar el archivo C:\Users\kav\Desktop\CambiaZonaXP7.ps1 porque en el sistema está deshabilitada la ejecución de scripts. Vea “get-help about_signing”
para obtener más información.
At line:0 char:0

admin April 22, 2016 - 5:52 am

First you need to allow execution of unsigned ps scripts by entering:

set-executionpolicy remotesigned

Justin September 19, 2019 - 10:32 pm

Wow! it actually worked. I had this weird problem which it wouldn’t let me change the time in Settings.

antgaucho June 8, 2021 - 9:45 pm

As Justin, my system (a 2019 dc) wouldn’t let me change the time zone through any of the GUI widgets. Thanks for the pointer to tzutil.exe. BTW many of us must invoke TZutil with a parameter ” Standard Time” even when DST is in effect, MS adroitly dodging an opportunity to reduce confusion.