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justinbillig

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Force all users to use 24 hour time

I have a box that is shared amongst multiple users and I need to force all login's to use 24 hour time. I am admin on the box but I don't have access to group policy's or the actual users themselves. I would like a solution that would work for any user who logs in, not just a preset list of users. I tried looking around for a command line process that I could put in the startup folder but I couldn't find anything. I modified the date time settings for myself hoping that it would propogate down to all users but it didn't. Please provide some direction.
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samiam41
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Greetings.  A similar question was asked before and an expert provided this answer.  See if it matches your needs:

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21488663/Policy-for-Military-Time.html
You can use a local group policy on that pc.  From the start > run menu, enter in gpedit.msc
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justinbillig

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samiam41

That solution looks good but I have very little knowledge on how to do this. I opened up the group policy editor on my machine ( I am going to test it there first ) but I found no way to import it in. Where do I put it?
Gotcha.  Let me write a quick guide on how to do this.
Here we go.  

-Open up notepad and copy/paste the settings from the other post (I included them below to save a step).
-Save the notepad doc as MilitaryTime.adm in the c:\Windows\Inf directory
-Run gpedit.msc from start > run
-Under "Computer Configuration" > Administrative Templates (right click Admin Templates and choose View > Filtering > and uncheck "Only show settings that can be fully managed")
-Right click on Administrative Templates again and now choose "Add/Remove Templates"
-Choose Add > browse to the c:\windows\inf directory and select the militarytime.adm
-choose "Close"

*Restart pc
----[MilitaryTime.adm]----
CLASS USER
CATEGORY "Time settings"
POLICY "Use military time"
KEYNAME "Control Panel\International"
ACTIONLISTON
; Settings for military time:
  VALUENAME "iTime" VALUE "1"
  VALUENAME "iTLZero" VALUE "1"
  VALUENAME "s1159" VALUE ""
  VALUENAME "s2359" VALUE ""
  VALUENAME "sTime" VALUE ":"
  VALUENAME "sTimeFormat" VALUE "HH:mm:ss"
  VALUENAME "iTimePrefix" VALUE "0"
  VALUENAME "sDate" VALUE "."
  VALUENAME "sShortDate" VALUE "dd.MM.yyyy"
  VALUENAME "sLongDate" VALUE "dddd, d. MMMM yyyy"
END ACTIONLISTON
ACTIONLISTOFF
; Settings for normal time:
  VALUENAME "iTime" VALUE "0"
  VALUENAME "iTLZero" VALUE "0"
  VALUENAME "s1159" VALUE "am"
  VALUENAME "s2359" VALUE "pm"
  VALUENAME "sTime" VALUE ":"
  VALUENAME "sTimeFormat" VALUE "h:mm"
  VALUENAME "iTimePrefix" VALUE "0"
  VALUENAME "sDate" VALUE "/"
  VALUENAME "sShortDate" VALUE "mm/dd/yyyy"
  VALUENAME "sLongDate" VALUE "dddd, d. MMMM yyyy"
END ACTIONLISTOFF
END POLICY
END CATEGORY
----[MilitaryTime.adm]----

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Correction!

Please see updated code below!
CLASS USER
CATEGORY "Time settings"
POLICY "Use military time"
KEYNAME "Control Panel\International"
ACTIONLISTON
; Settings for military time:
  VALUENAME "iTime" VALUE "1"
  VALUENAME "iTLZero" VALUE "1"
  VALUENAME "s1159" VALUE ""
  VALUENAME "s2359" VALUE ""
  VALUENAME "sTime" VALUE ":"
  VALUENAME "sTimeFormat" VALUE "HH:mm:ss"
  VALUENAME "iTimePrefix" VALUE "0"
  VALUENAME "sDate" VALUE "."
  VALUENAME "sShortDate" VALUE "dd.MM.yyyy"
  VALUENAME "sLongDate" VALUE "dddd, d. MMMM yyyy"
END ACTIONLISTON
ACTIONLISTOFF
; Settings for normal time:
  VALUENAME "iTime" VALUE "0"
  VALUENAME "iTLZero" VALUE "0"
  VALUENAME "s1159" VALUE "am"
  VALUENAME "s2359" VALUE "pm"
  VALUENAME "sTime" VALUE ":"
  VALUENAME "sTimeFormat" VALUE "h:mm"
  VALUENAME "iTimePrefix" VALUE "0"
  VALUENAME "sDate" VALUE "/"
  VALUENAME "sShortDate" VALUE "mm/dd/yyyy"
  VALUENAME "sLongDate" VALUE "dddd, d. MMMM yyyy"
END ACTIONLISTOFF
END POLICY
END CATEGORY

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Also, when I tested it on a virtual pc, I put the militarytime.adm template under "Computer Configuration" first and then removed it. I left it under "User Configuration" and got the best results.
Any update?
Sam,
         It didnt seem to work. I added it under user configuration > administrative emplates. If i open the add / remove templates dialog box it is there (MilitaryTime, size 1kb, modified today) but My time is still in AM/PM.

Any direction or thoughts?
Interesting.  Looks like I will be testing this further.  Just to make sure I ask all the stupid questions, did you reboot this computer twice after applying the lgpo?
Twice. Not at the time but I have since restarted now 3 times and it still is AM / PM.
; )  

That should be enough.  I had to ask.  Working on it now.
Got stuck in our building's remodeling when it got to our server room.  Sorry for the hang up.

I am going to spend some time this morning on this and will have you a concrete answer.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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samiam41
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