Prevent user changing time manually?

Hi,

Thanks to everyone who helped me think this through.

The solution uses a combination of changing local security policy suggested here (Date and Time - Allow or Prevent Users and Groups from Changing) and the very full-featured and free-for-home-use time-sync program Dimension 4 (Thinking Man Software - Dimension 4 v5.3). Changing local security policy does prevent the user from changing the time, but it also prevents WIndows Time service from running, so over time the system clock can drift too far off course. Dimension4 runs as a service, runs hidden, and has profuse configuration options and keeps the time synced despite the user's not having time-change permission. As a final option I set the Windows Time service to manual.

The default setting in Windows 7 for the Windows Time service is Manual.
If yours was changed to something else, maybe that caused the issue ?

DavidE said:

The default setting in Windows 7 for the Windows Time service is Manual.
If yours was changed to something else, maybe that caused the issue ?

Tried it both ways. Regardless of setting, it wouldn't start with Administrators permissions removed from local security policy. It was set to Automatic by a previous administration. It was this way on thousands of machines, and as it never affected anything, I never bothered to change it back.

GaryK

Setting clocks ahead a bit is recommended for some people with certain disorders. Messing with a computer's clock is not the best solution in a business setting. I've been watching this thread and looking for a clock app that allows the user to display the incorrect time (without messing with the system's time). I did not have any luck finding such an app - so, I wrote one. I'll send you a Private Message.