Time Zone w/GPO?

[dkamp]

I cannot seem to find the object in Group Policy Manager to create a GPO that will let me change the Time Zone on All PC's in our Domain. Am I on the right path to do this?
I can do it with a GPO can't I?

 

[58sniper]

I think you're going to have to push out a reg file that touches HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation

Pat Richard, MCSE(2) MCSA:Messaging, CNA(2)

 

[qtin]

Hot off of the press. I assume you are going to suffer through this with the rest of us....

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=914837

 

[dkamp]

Cool but.....
I did all this but when I added the Template I recieved an error on line 2
Error 51 Unexpected keyword
Found:[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation]
Expected: CLASS, CATEGORY, [strings]
The file can not be loaded.

Any suggestions?

 

[58sniper]

qtin -

Yep, and Michigan voted to extend daylight savings time as well, and that will kick off next year (I think). So we get to do all that all over again.

Pat Richard, MCSE(2) MCSA:Messaging, CNA(2)

 

[dkamp]

Indiana made a HUGE mistake by letting each county decide which time zone to follow. At first I thought the whole state would be Easter or Central, but that would have made too much common sense, Duh !

I tried to Export the registry info from that location and the .reg file looked identicle to the MS document.
So I guess pushing out a registry key might be the only solution, since a GPO won't be possible. And I was foolish enough to believe Microsoft about AD and GPO's could do most anything.
;(

 

[qtin]

Sorry - was out yesterday. The KB article I posted is junk. (Guess I really should have read the entire thing)
Copy this and paste it into notepad (note this is for Eastern only - I don't have any machines that will fall in Central so I don't care):

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
CLASS MACHINE;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;TimeZone
CATEGORY "Timezone"

KEYNAME "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation"

POLICY "Bias"
PART "Bias"
NUMERIC
VALUENAME "Bias"
END PART
END POLICY

POLICY "StandardName"
PART "StandardName"
EDITTEXT
DEFAULT "Eastern Standard Time"
VALUENAME "StandardName"
END PART
END POLICY

POLICY "StandardBias"
PART "StandardBias"
NUMERIC
VALUENAME "StandardBias"
MIN 0
END PART
END POLICY

POLICY "StandardStart"
PART "StandardStart"
NUMERIC
VALUENAME "StandardStart"
END PART
END POLICY

POLICY "DaylightName"
PART "DaylightName"
EDITTEXT
DEFAULT "Eastern Daylight Time"
VALUENAME "DaylightName"
END PART
END POLICY

POLICY "DaylightBias"
PART "DaylightBias"
NUMERIC
VALUENAME "DaylightBias"
MAX 9999999999
END PART
END POLICY

POLICY "DaylightStart"
PART "DaylightStart"
NUMERIC
VALUENAME "DaylightStart"
END PART
END POLICY

POLICY "ActiveTimeBias"
PART "ActiveTimeBias"
NUMERIC
VALUENAME "ActiveTimeBias"
END PART
END POLICY
END CATEGORY

If you want to actually understand what this does search / google for Custom ADM templates. *Disclaimer #2 - I actually don't handle the ADM stuff anymore. I just pulled this off of the server to show about what it should look like. This has not gone into production yet so it might need a little tweaking.

58Sniper, this is only needed for Indiana. MS has claimed a patch will be issued when the actual DATE of DST changes.

A little off topic - yeah, Indiana screwed the pooch on this one (shocker). It should have been simple. Make the line at OH or IL. You are going to make somebody mad no matter how you do it. They tried to please everybody and ended up with more of a mess than we had before.

 

[dkamp]

I noticed that Microsoft removed 914837 article. I'm getting worried. Has anyone sucsessfully changed client time zones? Did you do it with a GPO ?

 

[dkamp]

Whoo Hooo Microsoft release a new Updated Article.

See:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914837/EN-US/

For Indiana Time Zone "Potential" Fixes.



Good Luck..

 

[dkamp]

Sorry, seems Microsoft has a glitch.....
You have to have Power user or administrative rights to do this.

If anyone has worked this out PLEASE post a solution here.

 

[qtin]

Like I said in one of my disclaimers - I'm not actually making this switch for us. I can say now that we have done it. We ended up using SetTz.exe and ran it with an SMS push. Not exactly what you were looking for but that's how we ended up doing it. I don't know about rights level since we did it w/ SMS and I'm not the one that did it.