Windows 10: Enable or Disable Changing Geographic Location in Windows

How to: Enable or Disable Changing Geographic Location in Windows

How to Enable or Disable Changing Geographic Location in Windows


The country or region home location in Windows, referred to as geographic location (GeoID), indicates the country or region that you are in. Some software, including Windows, may provide you with additional content for a particular location. Some services provide you with local information such as news and weather.

If you move or go to a different country or region, you can change your home location (GeoID) to be the same. You can switch back to your original country or region at any time.

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable changing of geographic location for specific or all users in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

*Warning You must be signed in as an administrator to enable or disable changing of geographic location.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: Enable or Disable Changing Geographic Location for All Users in Local Group Policy Editor
• Option Two: Enable or Disable Changing Geographic Location for Specific Users in Local Group Policy Editor
• Option Three: Enable or Disable Changing Geographic Location for All Users using a REG file

EXAMPLE: Changing of geographic location disabled











OPTION ONE [/i] Enable or Disable Changing Geographic Location for All Users in Local Group Policy Editor

*note This option will override Option Two.

In Windows 7, the Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions.

In Windows 8, the Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Pro and Enterprise editions.

In Windows 10, the Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions.

All editions can use Option Three below.
1. Open the Local Group Policy Editor.

2. In the left pane of the Local Group Policy Editor, click/tap on to expand Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, System, and Locale Services. (see screenshot below)



3. In the right pane of Locale Services, double click/tap on the Disallow changing of geographic location policy to edit it. (see screenshot above)

4. Do step 5 (enable) or step 6 (disable) below for what you would like to do.


5. To Enable Changing Geographic Location for All Users
A) Select (dot) Not Configured or Disabled, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)

*note Not Configured is the default setting.

6. To Disable Changing Geographic Location for All Users
A) Select (dot) Enabled, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)




7. When finished, you can close the Local Group Policy Editor if you like.





OPTION TWO [/i] Enable or Disable Changing Geographic Location for Specific Users in Local Group Policy Editor

*note In Windows 7, the Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions.

In Windows 8, the Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Pro and Enterprise editions.

In Windows 10, the Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions.

All editions can use Option Three below.
1. Open the all users except administrators Local Group Policy Editor for how you want this policy applied.

2. In the left pane of the Local Group Policy Editor, click/tap on to expand User Configuration, Administrative Templates, System, and Locale Services. (see screenshot below)



3. In the right pane of Locale Services, double click/tap on the Disallow changing of geographic location policy to edit it. (see screenshot above)

4. Do step 5 (enable) or step 6 (disable) below for what you would like to do.


5. To Enable Changing Geographic Location
A) Select (dot) either Not Configured or Disabled, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)

*note Not Configured is the default setting.

6. To Disable Changing Geographic Location
A) Select (dot) Enabled, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)




7. When finished, you can close the Local Group Policy Editor if you like.





OPTION THREE [/i] Enable or Disable Changing Geographic Location for All Users using a REG file

*note This option will override Option Two.

The downloadable .reg files below will add and modify the DWORD value in the registry keys below.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Control Panel\International

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Control Panel\International

PreventGeoIdChange DWORD

(delete) = Enable
1 = Disable

1. Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you would like to do.


2. To Enable Changing Geographic Location for All Users
*note This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Enable_changing_geographic_location.reg

Download

3. To Disable Changing Geographic Location for All Users
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Disable_changing_geographic_location.reg

Download
4. Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6. When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7. You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Change Country or Region Home Location in Windows 10
• How to Change Region Location of Windows 10 for when Abroad
• How to Copy Region and Language Settings to Welcome Screen and New User Accounts in Windows 10
• How to Restrict User Locales for Date and Time Formats in Windows
• How to Enable or Disable Changing Date and Time Formats in Windows

:)

 

Can't enable Location in Windows 10

When I go to Settings>Privacy>Location I find the feature disabled. Clicking Change does not pop up the switch box. Instead the busy cursor (blue circle) flashes briefly. Therefore there is no way to enable Location.

Any suggestion on how to enable Location?

Please do not suggest a Reset of Windows 10. I worked with Microsoft for hours yesterday and that was all they had to suggest. There must be a simple way to fix this without undoing my entire configuration.

Thanks.

 

Set geographic location

How can I set an exact geographic location for my computer's location (in win 10) Cortana thinks I'm in Kansas when I'm actually in California ?

 

Set geographic location

Hi,

Thank you for letting us know about the issue.In order to help us gather more details you can submit the feedback through the Windows Feedback app following these steps:

• Open Windows Feedback.
• Start a new feedback item and select Problem.
• Select the Hardware, Devices and Drivers/Location Services area.
• Click on the Reproduce button.
• Switch to the Maps app and click on the Locate me icon (Concentric circles).
• Send your feedback.

 

my location on maps app is wrong.

Hi Don,

I suggest you to follow the below methods and check if it helps.

Kindly follow the below steps and check if it helps.

• Type Location privacy settings in search bar
  and click on Location privacy settings.
• Here you can enable/disable the Location.
• You may try to Enable/Disable the Maps app to use the
  location or not from the apps list.

Please get back to us with an update on this issue, we will be happy to assist you further.

Thank you.

 

Location icon grayed out and not working in windows 10 creators update

We suggest that you check if the following service is enabled to activate the Location icon:

• Press Windows key + R.
• Type service.msc in the Run dialog box and select
  Services.
• Right-click on Windows Location Framework Service and click
  Stop.
• Once done, right-click again on Windows Location Framework Service and click
  Start.
• If the service is enabled, try disabling and re-enabling and check if the issue persists.

Let us know how it goes after performing the suggested steps.