The country or region home location in Windows, referred to as geographic location (GeoID), indicates the country or region you are in.
This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable changing the country or region geographic location (GeoID) for specific or all users in Windows 10 and Windows 11.
You must be signed in as an administrator to enable or disable changing the country or region geographic location (GeoID).
Contents
- Option One: Enable or Disable Changing Country or Region GeoID for All or Specific Users in Local Group Policy Editor
- Option Two: Enable or Disable Changing Country or Region GeoID for All Users using REG file
EXAMPLE: Change country or region geographic location (GeoID) disabled
Enable or Disable Changing Country or Region GeoID for All or Specific Users in Local Group Policy Editor
The Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Windows 10/11 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions.
All editions can use Option Two to configure the same policy.
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 Navigate to the policy location below you want in the left pane of the Local Group Policy Editor. (see screenshot below)
(All users)
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Locale Services
OR
(Specific user or group)
User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Locale Services
3 In the right pane of Locale Services in the Local Group Policy Editor, 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 want.
5 Enable Changing Country or Region GeoID
This is the default setting.
A) Select (dot) Not Configured. (see screenshot below)
B) Click/tap on OK, and go to step 7.
6 Disable Changing Country or Region GeoID
A) Select (dot) Enabled. (see screenshot below)
B) Click/tap on OK, and go to step 7.
7 You can now close the Local Group Policy Editor if you like.
1 Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you would like to do.
2 Enable Changing Country or Region GeoID 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_country_or_region_geographic_location_for_all_users.reg
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Control Panel\International]
"PreventGeoIdChange"=-
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Control Panel\International]
"PreventGeoIdChange"=-3 Disable Changing Country or Region GeoID for All Users
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Disable_changing_country_or_region_geographic_location_for_all_users.reg
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Control Panel\International]
"PreventGeoIdChange"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Control Panel\International]
"PreventGeoIdChange"=dword:000000014 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 Brink
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