Win2k Domain Policy question

[Perilous1]

I posted this question a couple of weeks ago, and my thread disappeared, so here it is again..

Is there a domain policy available that will force workstations to run specific time zone settings, including the option for Daylight Savings. If so, where is it located?

I've had no luck tracking it down, but it seems like a sensible option to have been included in policies.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Perilous1]

Just a follow-up. I've already explored the idea of a login script that forcibly alters the registry settings for the Time Zone. It successfully changes the three key areas of the registry that has the TZ settings, but the actual Time Zone in the OS clock does not change as a result:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\TimeZoneInformation

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\TimeZoneInformation

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation

 

[kmcferrin]

If it exists, I've never seen it, and it seems to me that it would have the potential to cause a lot of problems. Domains are designed to encompass an entire enterprise. A single domain could span multiple (or all) time zones. That's why time synchronization in Windows is done to UTC, then offsets are calculated for the current time zone. If you had a group policy that set the time zone then you would be forced to design your OU structures around time zones, which many people wouldn't want to do (usually because they use their OUs to mirror their organizational structure).

 

[Perilous1]

I can certainly see the issue you pose, but that is true of many of the Policies. Which is why I would imagine all of those Policies are optional.

The vast majority of our Workstations are Windows 2000 Professional. I am trying to avoid having to install third-party time sync software just to get them to behave.

 

[kmcferrin]

If you're worried about time sync issues, that is automatically taken care of by the domain. When the PC authenticates it will get the correct time from the PDC emulator and adjust itself accordingly. The time zone info is still specific to the PC, as are DST settings. But so long as you set the correct time zone on the PC when it's built you should be good to go.

 

[Perilous1]

Thanks to the wholly inadeqaute patch this Spring for the Daylight Savings change the computers did not roll over the time correctly and I had to do so myself to over 118 workstation company-wide in the middle of the night. We're a casino and always open..

The problem is that none of the workstations have their Time Zone info properly set and I was looking for a way to force them to set to a particular zone upon logging in.

 

[Davetoo]

I don't see how that would resolve your issue unless you were going to force them to a different time zone to correct the time? Odd.

I patched all 500 of my clients, ran into one or two problems, but not an issue overall.

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

 

[Titleist]

Well VentureBrother,

It looks like you may have to visit the workstations again as MS has released an updated DST patch to fix the first one that didn't work on my W2k workstations either...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933360/en-us

John

 

[Perilous1]

Davetoo, it resolves the issue because time is seemingly randomly advancing an hour and then back again on all workstations as a result of the faulty patch. Users are changing their time, timezone and daylight savings settings in order to change it back, only to have it happen again 2 days later.

I don't understand the point of arguing against my wanting this simply because you fail to see how it would help.

 

[Perilous1]

Titleist, thanks for the link. It appears that its only for Vista, XP and 2003 rather than for Win2k though.