Why can't I change my date/time?

On the computers within my organization we can't adjust the date/time from the settings. (The black mark covers "Time server: [server name]")

I have been looking at various websites and forums to see what would be the cause of this.

I checked the following in RSOP.MSC

• Comp Config > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > User Rights Assignments
  • "Change the system time" is set to "Not Configured"
• Comp Config > Admin Templates > System > Locale Services
  • This was non existent within RSOP

I checked my local computers group policy for:

• Comp Config > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > User Rights Assignments
  • "Change the system time" is set to "LOCAL SERVICE,Administrators,Users" (I put Users in there).
• Comp Config > Admin Templates > System > Locale Services
  • All items in here are set to Not Configured

I added a GPO to my computers OU and then set myself in the "Change the system time" user rights assignment and then performed a gpudate /force and then logged off when prompted. But still nothing.

On our domain I am a member of Domain Admins group which is a member of the Administrators Group.

The OU that my computer is in does not inherit global policies and there is not linked GPO's that affects any of the aforementioned items.

However, the "Explain" portion of the GPO stated that it comes from "Default Domain Controllers Policy" which I checked and is set to "NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE, BUILTIN\Administrators, BUILTIN\Server Operators" I am apart of BUILTIN\Administrators

I checked regedit for

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Control Panel\International
  • it doesn't exist.

When I go to the old control panel > Date and Time > Change date and time... I am able to change the date and time from there. I also can change it using the "date" command on CMD.

No matter what I try, the settings page to adjust date and time manually is still always greyed out.

When a computer is domain joined, the default settings make it so that from the settings menu, time/date cannot be managed anymore and the message at the top is shown.

With the default settings, you can still go to Control Panel and change the time/date there.

Do note that the default settings make it so that the time is synchronized to the domain controller in order to ensure that everything runs correctly. Time can still be managed on a local client, but when it syncs back to the time of the DC, the changes will be undone. If the time is not correct, ensure that the time on the DC is correct. If that time changes also, it may be synced to another time server. For example, a DC that runs as a virtual machine will automatically get its time updated by the host, and if the host is not domain joined, that time is not updated.

It is possible that a router in the network sends out an ntp signal as well, and a server may sync its time to that, so the VM host may sync its time to a router and the router may not sync its time to anything and just get out of sync (yes I've seen it happen).

In any case, you can use GPO to manage the time for all computers by setting an ntp server or pool and you can choose to not manage time at all (deviate from the default) risking weird problems where computers lose their trust relationship with the dc.