Unable to change the time zone in Windows 10

Windows 10 Home can get in a state where it requires admin to change the time zone, even though there's no group policy. It worked for me to run tzutil as a standard user with privilege elevated via UAC (as opposed to using the admin account, which the OP tried).

1. Open an admin console (Windows+X,A).

2. Enter tzutil /l to list time zone choices.

3. Copy the the one you want to the clipboard and paste it in quotes after tzutil /s, e.g.:

    tzutil /s "Pacific Standard Time"
   

The problem we had, was due to the internet monitoring/filtering software Qustodio which was installed on the machine. We removed it.

If Qustodio ever resolves this problem - that the software denies the Administrator the ability to change the time zone - we would love to install it again.

You probably have the fall update installed, which adds the "set time zone automatically feature". Simply turn off that feature from the Date and time settings page (not the classic control panel) and you can set the time zone manually.

If you're still having problems, or the manual time zone selection is disabled even when you've turned off the automatic feature, then you probably have the "Change the time zone" policy configured. Check your local and/or domain group policies in effect.

If Qustodio is causing the problem, here's what worked on my PC: (Assuming you have admin control over the application) - Right click the Qustodio icon - Select Disable Temporarily (give it 15 mins or whatever) - Change your timezone in Windows normally - Reboot just to verify that it stuck

The best way to avoid the issue, though, is to make sure you have the timezone set properly before installing Qustodio. Which I forgot to do this time. The reason Qustodio does this is that it has parental controls that govern access time windows for user accounts on the PC. (So if the user could change the timezone, they could circumvent this control.)