My Windows 10 computer automatically figures out my timezone when I travel. Except this time. How can I manually change timezone in Win10?
At this point in the evolution of the Internet, your computer knows where you are 99% of the time, to the point where it can be rather disconcerting. Don’t believe me? Open up Google Maps and have it locate you. It’ll know at a level of granularity that can show what side of the road you’re on, let alone neighborhood or city!
With this level of technological sophistication, it’s no surprise that your devices should be able to automatically detect when you cross a timezone line and automatically switch so that you’re always reflecting the correct time as you travel. Except, of course, when it doesn’t. And that’s what we can figure out!
There are actually two reasons the automatic timezone can fail, one of which might surprise you: Using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) can mess up the computer’s calculation of your location because it’ll often default to the location of the VPN relay. I could be sitting in Kansas City but if I’m using a VPN based in Miami, Florida, my computer might well decide I’m in Eastern time (EST), not Central (CST) time. The other reason is because somehow you’ve disabled automatic timezone detection.
I notice things are wrong when I look at the Taskbar and see the wrong darn time:
I mean, I know I’m up early, but it’s not 5:53am! You would think that clicking on the time would bring up a way to get to the settings and change it, but it doesn’t. It does, however, show a very attractive calendar and schedule:
All nice, but… how do you fix it?
To switch to the correct timezone, move over to the [Cortana] search box and search for “timezone”:
If you’re not relying on the Windows 10 search feature to work with your computer, you’re really missing out. Microsoft has done a fantastic job expanding its features and capabilities and this should always be your first stop with anything to do with your PC system.
In this case you can see a simple search for “timezone” has produced exactly the correct setting result. Click to choose it (or, another shortcut, just press Return or Enter to select it) and you’ll be here:
A ha! This is where you can specify that you want time zone set automatically. Sometimes, as I said earlier, that won’t work, however, so if you need to set it manually, you’ll need the automatic time zone disabled. To select your current timezone manually instead, click on where it shows the current time zone. In my case, it’s “(UCT-07:00) Mountain Time (US & Canada)”.
Since I’m actually in Central Time, that’s what I’ll choose, and, like magic, the time’s changed:
Not too painful really! And now you know how to fix your automatic timezone setting too.
Dave,
My laptop keeps changing from my Eastern Time Zone to Central. I’ve set the command prompt for Eastern Time Zone without success, I’ve manually set the time zone to Eastern Time Zone without success. Even my Alexa recognizes the Central time zone, my former place of residence. I’ve updated my profile on the laptop to correctly recognize the Eastern Time Zone without success.
What’s next???