How to Prevent the Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE) from Adjusting the Time on the Computer

Note that this article is intended for Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) customers.

When a user first turns on a new computer, the user typically must follow some steps to set up the new computer. One of these steps may be to select the time zone. If the time zone that the customer selects is different from the time zone in the image that the OEM used, the Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE) adjusts the current computer time to match the new time zone.

In some cases, the OEM may know where the computer will be shipped and can set the correct time zone in the factory. It is then not necessary for the OOBE to adjust the time. A new key has been added to accommodate this situation.

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows XP. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Windows XP Service Pack 1.

To prevent the OOBE from adjusting the time, add the following string in the [options] section of the Oobeinfo.ini file (under the "%windir%\system32\oobe" line): The original behavior is used if KeepCurrentTime is set to 0 or is not present in Oobeinfo.ini file.