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.

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
Enable or Disable Changing Geographic Location in Windows-home_location.png Enable or Disable Changing Geographic Location in Windows-country_or_region_in_settings.jpg






OPTION ONE

Enable or Disable Changing Geographic Location for All Users in Local Group Policy Editor


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)

Enable or Disable Changing Geographic Location in Windows-geographic_location_gpedit-3.jpg

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)

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)

Enable or Disable Changing Geographic Location in Windows-geographic_location_gpedit-2.png


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






OPTION TWO

Enable or Disable Changing Geographic Location for Specific Users in Local Group Policy Editor


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, specific users or groups, or 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)

Enable or Disable Changing Geographic Location in Windows-geographic_location_gpedit-1.jpg

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)

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)

Enable or Disable Changing Geographic Location in Windows-geographic_location_gpedit-2.png


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






OPTION THREE

Enable or Disable Changing Geographic Location for All Users using a REG file


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

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



  • Windows 11 Tutorials