Set the Time Zone on Your Cloud Desktop

A man adjusting a wall clock in a bright modern office with a laptop open on the desk behind him

Short answer: Your cloud desktop keeps its own clock, and it may not match yours. Change it on the desktop in Settings → Time & Language → Date & time. If several people in different countries share the desktop, leave it on one agreed time zone rather than changing it back and forth.

Applies to: Infosaic cloud desktops and VPS · Windows

The clock on a cloud desktop is set to wherever the machine is, which is not necessarily wherever you are. Most of the time nobody notices — until an email is timestamped three hours out, a meeting invitation lands at the wrong hour, or a file is dated tomorrow.

It is a thirty-second fix, with one wrinkle worth understanding if you share the desktop with anyone.

How do I change the time zone on my cloud desktop?

A woman at a tidy desk looking up from her laptop

Connect to the cloud desktop.
Right-click the clock in the corner of the taskbar and choose Adjust date/time. (Or open Settings → Time & Language → Date & time.)
Turn Set time zone automatically off. Automatic detection is unreliable on a server and will fight you.
Choose your time zone from the dropdown.
Leave Set time automatically on so the clock stays accurate.
Check the taskbar clock now reads correctly.

Some already-open applications keep the old time zone until restarted. If Outlook or a business application still shows the old times, close and reopen it.

If several people share the desktop

A woman smiling at a laptop in a bright reception area of a small business

This is the wrinkle. The time zone is a property of the machine, not of your user account. Change it and you change it for everyone signed in.

Agree one time zone for a shared desktop and leave it alone. Head office, or wherever most of the team sits, is the usual choice.
Do not change it for one task. Someone else’s calendar entries will move, and calendar software copes with that badly.
Add a second clock instead. Windows can show additional clocks for other time zones in the taskbar — a much better answer for people working across regions.

Do not set the clock by hand. Leave Set time automatically on and fix only the time zone. A manually-set clock drifts, and a clock that is wrong by enough can break sign-ins to services that check timestamps — which is a far more confusing problem than a wrong time zone.

Related settings worth checking on day one

Date format. Under Region, so that 03/04 means what you expect. Worth agreeing on a shared desktop.
First day of the week. Affects how every calendar view looks.
Currency and number format. Under Region, and it affects how spreadsheets interpret what you type.
Keyboard layout. See typing in another language.

Questions and answers

Why is the time wrong on my cloud desktop?

It keeps its own clock set to wherever the machine is, which need not match your location. Change the time zone in Windows date and time settings.

Where do I change the time zone?

On the cloud desktop, right-click the taskbar clock and choose Adjust date/time, or open Settings, Time and Language, Date and time.

Should I turn on automatic time zone?

No. Automatic detection is unreliable on a server. Turn it off and choose the zone yourself, but leave set time automatically on.

Does changing the time zone affect other users?

Yes. It is a machine setting, so everyone signed in to that desktop sees the change. Agree one zone on a shared desktop.

My calendar still shows the old times.

Close and reopen the application. Some programs read the time zone only when they start.

Can I show two time zones at once?

Yes. Windows can display additional clocks in the taskbar, which is the right answer for teams working across regions.

Should I set the clock manually?

No. Leave set time automatically on and correct only the zone. A drifting or wrong clock can break sign-ins to services that check timestamps.

What about the date format?

That is under Region rather than Date and time. It is worth agreeing on a shared desktop so nobody misreads a date.

Still stuck?

Open a support request from your control panel — that is the fastest route, because it reaches the team who can already see your account and your desktop. You can also email [email protected].