# Change the time zone of your instance
<a name="change-time-zone-of-instance"></a>

Amazon EC2 instances are set to the UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) time zone by default. You can change the time on an instance to the local time zone or to another time zone in your network.

Use the instructions for your instance's operating system.

## Linux
<a name="change_time_zone"></a>

**Important**  
This information applies to Amazon Linux. For information about other distributions, see their specific documentation.

**To change the time zone on Amazon Linux**

1. View the system's current time zone setting.

   ```
   [ec2-user ~]$ timedatectl
   ```

1. List the available time zones.

   ```
   [ec2-user ~]$ timedatectl list-timezones
   ```

1. Set the chosen time zone.

   ```
   [ec2-user ~]$ sudo timedatectl set-timezone America/Vancouver
   ```

1. (Optional) Confirm that the current time zone is updated to the new time zone by running the **timedatectl** command again.

   ```
   [ec2-user ~]$ timedatectl
   ```

## Windows
<a name="windows-changing-time-zone"></a>

**To change the time zone on a Windows instance**

1. From your instance, open a Command Prompt window.

1. Identify the time zone to use on the instance. To get a list of time zones, use the following command:

   ```
   tzutil /l
   ```

   This command returns a list of all available time zones in the following format:

   ```
   display name
   time zone ID
   ```

1. Locate the time zone ID to assign to the instance.

1. Example: Assign the UTC time zone:

   ```
   tzutil /s "UTC"
   ```

   Example: Assign Pacific Standard Time:

   ```
   tzutil /s "Pacific Standard Time"
   ```

When you change the time zone on a Windows instance, you must ensure that the time zone persists through system restarts. Otherwise, when the instance restarts, it reverts back to using UTC time. You can persist your time zone setting by adding a **RealTimeIsUniversal** registry key. This key is set by default on all current generation instances. To verify whether the **RealTimeIsUniversal** registry key is set, see step 3 in the following procedure. If the key is not set, follow these steps from the beginning.

**To set the RealTimeIsUniversal registry key**

1. From the instance, open a Command Prompt window.

1. Use the following command to add the registry key:

   ```
   reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_DWORD /f
   ```

1. (Optional) Verify that the instance saved the key successfully using the following command:

   ```
   reg query "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /s
   ```

   This command returns the subkeys for the **TimeZoneInformation** registry key. You should see the **RealTimeIsUniversal** key at the bottom of the list, similar to the following:

   ```
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation
       Bias                            REG_DWORD     0x1e0
       DaylightBias                    REG_DWORD     0xffffffc4
       DaylightName                    REG_SZ        @tzres.dll,-211
       DaylightStart                   REG_BINARY    00000300020002000000000000000000
       StandardBias                    REG_DWORD     0x0
       StandardName                    REG_SZ        @tzres.dll,-212
       StandardStart                   REG_BINARY    00000B00010002000000000000000000
       TimeZoneKeyName                 REG_SZ        Pacific Standard Time
       DynamicDaylightTimeDisabled     REG_DWORD     0x0
       ActiveTimeBias                  REG_DWORD     0x1a4
       RealTimeIsUniversal             REG_DWORD     0x1
   ```