Manage time and related settings on your MHC computer

Overview

All computers managed by Mount Holyoke College need to have some restrictions placed on the ability to change date and time. This is important so the computers can communicate properly with the management servers. Accurate date and time, including time zone, is important for computer users for managing their own time. Configurations are tested to make sure these two needs are not in conflict. Follow the steps below to check settings on your computer.

Time zone

In general, our configuration prevents the date and time from being set manually. The computer will get its time from its connection from either the Windows management system, or on Macs from Apple's time servers. These settings allow the computer to check its time against a server at frequent intervals and keep up to date better than relying on keeping time itself.

Time zones can be manually set, and are configured by default to Eastern Standard Time (with or without a Daylight Saving Time modification automatically applied). Time zones can also be configured to update automatically, which may be preferable for portable computers used for travel.

Automatically updating the time zone is dependent on location services. If location services are disabled, a computer cannot be set to automatically update its time zone because it has no way to figure out for itself where it is.

If location is not enabled, you can update the time zone manually.

macOS

To manually set the time zone on macOS:

1. Go to System Settings > Date & Time
2. Type the nearest major city name and a menu option will auto-complete
3. The time zone will be set from the city selection

macOS will prompt you to turn on Location Services if it is not already on. See below.

Windows

To manually set the time zone on Windows:

1. Go to Start > Settings > Time & Language > Date & Time
2. Select the slider to Set time zone automatically

If the option is greyed out, you may need to turn on location service first. See below.

Location services

With location services, a computer reaches out to acquire location information from nearby infrastructure via wireless access points, cell towers, ethernet connection, and other means depending on its hardware. The computer can automatically determine the correct time zone from this information as well as supply other location-relevant information such as weather and time-sensitive notifications.

macOS

1. Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services
2. Toggle Location Services on

Apple provides more in-depth information about Location Services and privacy.

Windows

1. Go to Start > Settings > Privacy (or Privacy and Security) > Location.
2. Do one of the following:
3. Turn location services on.
4. Switch Allow apps to access your location setting to On. 

If you don't see either of the switches, contact the LITS Technology Helpdesk.

Microsoft offers an article that explains how locations services work, including privacy protections, as well as specifically how to make changes for both Windows 10 and 11.