Microsoft KB Archive/221542

= How to change time zone information by using Visual Basic =

Article ID: 221542

Article Last Modified on 11/8/2004

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Learning Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Learning Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Enterprise Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Enterprise Edition

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This article was previously published under Q221542



SUMMARY
It is sometimes necessary to programmatically change the time zone for the system where the application is running. This article demonstrates this technique.



MORE INFORMATION
The way to implement this effect is as follows:
 * 1) Determine which time zone you would like to change to.
 * 2) Find the key in the registry that contains the information needed to fill the TIME_ZONE_INFORMATION structure.
 * 3) Read in that information and load the values into a variable of type TIME_ZONE_INFORMATION.
 * 4) Call the SetTimeZoneInformation API, passing it the TIME_ZONE_INFORMATION struct variable.

The location in the registry that contains time zone information differs between Windows 9x and Windows NT/Windows 2000.

For Windows NT and Windows 2000, it is located at:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Time Zones

For Windows 9x, it is located at:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Time Zones

The Time Zone key names differ between Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows 9x as well because Windows NT and Windows 2000 append the string "Standard Time" to the different keys whereas Windows 9x does not.

For example:

In Windows NT and Windows 2000, you would see this key:

Pacific Standard Time

while in Windows 9x, you would see this key:

Pacific

The registry location where the current Date/Time settings can be found is:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation

Step-by-step example
The code sample below requires a form with a listbox. The listbox is loaded with the possible time zone values that the user can select with a double-click to change the time zone. It will show a messagebox that, once dismissed, will change the system settings back to their original values.  Create a new Standard EXE project. Form1 is created by default. Add a Listbox control to Form1.  Add the following code to the General Declarations section of Form1: Option Explicit

' Operating System version information declares

Private Const VER_PLATFORM_WIN32_NT = 2 Private Const VER_PLATFORM_WIN32_WINDOWS = 1

Private Type OSVERSIONINFO dwOSVersionInfoSize As Long dwMajorVersion As Long dwMinorVersion As Long dwBuildNumber As Long dwPlatformId As Long szCSDVersion As String * 128 ' Maintenance string End Type

Private Declare Function GetVersionEx Lib "kernel32" _ Alias "GetVersionExA" (lpVersionInformation As OSVERSIONINFO) As Long

' Time Zone information declares

Private Type SYSTEMTIME wYear As Integer wMonth As Integer wDayOfWeek As Integer wDay As Integer wHour As Integer wMinute As Integer wSecond As Integer wMilliseconds As Integer End Type

Private Type REGTIMEZONEINFORMATION Bias As Long StandardBias As Long DaylightBias As Long StandardDate As SYSTEMTIME DaylightDate As SYSTEMTIME End Type

Private Type TIME_ZONE_INFORMATION Bias As Long StandardName(0 To 63) As Byte ' used to accommodate Unicode strings StandardDate As SYSTEMTIME StandardBias As Long DaylightName(0 To 63) As Byte ' used to accommodate Unicode strings DaylightDate As SYSTEMTIME DaylightBias As Long End Type

Private Const TIME_ZONE_ID_INVALID = &HFFFFFFFF Private Const TIME_ZONE_ID_UNKNOWN = 0 Private Const TIME_ZONE_ID_STANDARD = 1 Private Const TIME_ZONE_ID_DAYLIGHT = 2

Private Declare Function GetTimeZoneInformation Lib "kernel32" _ (lpTimeZoneInformation As TIME_ZONE_INFORMATION) As Long

Private Declare Function SetTimeZoneInformation Lib "kernel32" _ (lpTimeZoneInformation As TIME_ZONE_INFORMATION) As Long

' Registry information declares Private Const REG_SZ As Long = 1 Private Const REG_BINARY = 3 Private Const REG_DWORD As Long = 4

Private Const HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT = &H80000000 Private Const HKEY_CURRENT_USER = &H80000001 Private Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002 Private Const HKEY_USERS = &H80000003

Private Const ERROR_SUCCESS = 0 Private Const ERROR_BADDB = 1 Private Const ERROR_BADKEY = 2 Private Const ERROR_CANTOPEN = 3 Private Const ERROR_CANTREAD = 4 Private Const ERROR_CANTWRITE = 5 Private Const ERROR_OUTOFMEMORY = 6 Private Const ERROR_ARENA_TRASHED = 7 Private Const ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED = 8 Private Const ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETERS = 87 Private Const ERROR_NO_MORE_ITEMS = 259

Private Const KEY_ALL_ACCESS = &H3F

Private Const REG_OPTION_NON_VOLATILE = 0

Private Declare Function RegOpenKeyEx Lib "advapi32.dll" _ Alias "RegOpenKeyExA" ( _  ByVal hKey As Long, _   ByVal lpSubKey As String, _   ByVal ulOptions As Long, _   ByVal samDesired As Long, _   phkResult As Long) _ As Long

Private Declare Function RegQueryValueEx Lib "advapi32.dll" _ Alias "RegQueryValueExA" ( _  ByVal hKey As Long, _   ByVal lpszValueName As String, _   ByVal lpdwReserved As Long, _   lpdwType As Long, _   lpData As Any, _   lpcbData As Long) _ As Long

Private Declare Function RegQueryValueExString Lib "advapi32.dll" _ Alias "RegQueryValueExA" ( _  ByVal hKey As Long, _   ByVal lpValueName As String, _   ByVal lpReserved As Long, _   lpType As Long, _   ByVal lpData As String, _   lpcbData As Long) _ As Long

Private Declare Function RegEnumKey Lib "advapi32.dll" _ Alias "RegEnumKeyA" ( _  ByVal hKey As Long, _   ByVal dwIndex As Long, _   ByVal lpName As String, _   ByVal cbName As Long) _ As Long

Private Declare Function RegCloseKey Lib "advapi32.dll" ( _  ByVal hKey As Long) _ As Long

' Registry Constants Const SKEY_NT = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Time Zones" Const SKEY_9X = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Time Zones"

' The following declaration is different from the one in the API viewer. ' To disable implicit ANSI<->Unicode conversion, it changes the ' variable types of lpMultiByteStr and lpWideCharStr to Any. ' Private Declare Function MultiByteToWideChar Lib "kernel32" ( _   ByVal CodePage As Long, _    ByVal dwFlags As Long, _    lpMultiByteStr As Any, _    ByVal cchMultiByte As Long, _    lpWideCharStr As Any, _    ByVal cchWideChar As Long) As Long ' The above Declare and the following Constants are used to make ' this sample compatible with Double Byte Character Systems (DBCS). Private Const CP_ACP = 0 Private Const MB_PRECOMPOSED = &H1 Private Declare Sub CopyMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" ( _ ByRef Destination As Any, _ ByRef Source As Any, _ ByVal numbytes As Long) Dim SubKey As String

Private Sub Form_Load Dim lRetVal As Long, lResult As Long, lCurIdx As Long Dim lDataLen As Long, lValueLen As Long, hKeyResult As Long Dim strvalue As String Dim osV As OSVERSIONINFO

' Win9x and WinNT have a slightly different registry structure. Determine ' the operating system and set a module variable to the correct subkey.

osV.dwOSVersionInfoSize = Len(osV) Call GetVersionEx(osV) If osV.dwPlatformId = VER_PLATFORM_WIN32_NT Then SubKey = SKEY_NT Else SubKey = SKEY_9X End If

lRetVal = RegOpenKeyEx(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, SubKey, 0, _                         KEY_ALL_ACCESS, hKeyResult)

If lRetVal = ERROR_SUCCESS Then

lCurIdx = 0 lDataLen = 32 lValueLen = 32

Do        strvalue = String(lValueLen, 0) lResult = RegEnumKey(hKeyResult, lCurIdx, strvalue, lDataLen)

If lResult = ERROR_SUCCESS Then List1.AddItem Left(strvalue, lValueLen) End If

lCurIdx = lCurIdx + 1

Loop While lResult = ERROR_SUCCESS

RegCloseKey hKeyResult Else List1.AddItem "Could not open registry key" End If End Sub

Private Sub List1_DblClick Dim TZ As TIME_ZONE_INFORMATION, oldTZ As TIME_ZONE_INFORMATION Dim rTZI As REGTIMEZONEINFORMATION Dim bytDLTName(32) As Byte, bytSTDName(32) As Byte Dim cbStr As Long, dwType As Long Dim lRetVal As Long, hKeyResult As Long, lngData As Long

lRetVal = RegOpenKeyEx(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, SubKey & "\" & List1.Text, _                          0, KEY_ALL_ACCESS, hKeyResult)

If lRetVal = ERROR_SUCCESS Then lRetVal = RegQueryValueEx(hKeyResult, "TZI", 0&, ByVal 0&, _                                 rTZI, Len(rTZI))

If lRetVal = ERROR_SUCCESS Then TZ.Bias = rTZI.Bias TZ.StandardBias = rTZI.StandardBias TZ.DaylightBias = rTZI.DaylightBias TZ.StandardDate = rTZI.StandardDate TZ.DaylightDate = rTZI.DaylightDate

cbStr = 32 dwType = REG_SZ

lRetVal = RegQueryValueEx(hKeyResult, "Std", _                    0&, dwType, bytSTDName(0), cbStr)

If lRetVal = ERROR_SUCCESS Then Call MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, MB_PRECOMPOSED, _              bytSTDName(0), cbStr, TZ.StandardName(0), 32) Else RegCloseKey hKeyResult Exit Sub End If

cbStr = 32 dwType = REG_SZ

lRetVal = RegQueryValueEx(hKeyResult, "Dlt", _                    0&, dwType, bytDLTName(0), cbStr)

If lRetVal = ERROR_SUCCESS Then Call MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, MB_PRECOMPOSED, _              bytDLTName(0), cbStr, TZ.DaylightName(0), 32) Else RegCloseKey hKeyResult Exit Sub End If

lRetVal = GetTimeZoneInformation(oldTZ)

If lRetVal = TIME_ZONE_ID_INVALID Then MsgBox "Error getting original TimeZone Info" RegCloseKey hKeyResult Exit Sub Else If TZ.DaylightDate.wMonth <> 0 And TZ.DaylightBias <> 0 Then lRetVal = SetTimeZoneInformation(TZ) Else Call CopyMemory(TZ.DaylightName(0), TZ.StandardName(0), 64) TZ.DaylightBias = 0 lRetVal = SetTimeZoneInformation(TZ) End If           MsgBox "Time Zone Changed, Click OK to restore" lRetVal = SetTimeZoneInformation(oldTZ) End If     End If

RegCloseKey hKeyResult End If End Sub  Run the program, and note that the listbox displays all of the available time zones. Select a time zone, and then double-click it. Your system locale is changed to the selected zone. You receive the following message:

Time Zone Changed, Click OK to restore

 In Control Panel, double-click the Date/Time icon. You can also reach this dialog by double-clicking the clock in the system tray. Click the Time Zone tab and observe that the time zone has been changed. Close the Date/Time Properties dialog box and click OK on the message box displayed by your application. Repeat the previous step to confirm that the time zone information has been restored.</li></ol>

Keywords: kbhowto kbapi KB221542

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