
Microsoft has a habit of trying to default to US English and timezones whenever possible, which is obviously not ideal. In order to change this there are quite a few different places that need to be updated.

## Windows OOBE and unattend.xml settings

Firstly, when provisioning a new machine, ensure the ISO is of the correct language, and the unattend file (if being used, which you should be!), is setup to choose the correct languages and keyboard on first install. For a UK machine, this will look similar to this:

```xml
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="amd64"
    publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS"
    xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    <SetupUILanguage>
        <UILanguage>en-GB</UILanguage>
        <WillShowUI>Never</WillShowUI>
    </SetupUILanguage>
    <InputLocale>0809:00000809</InputLocale>
    <SystemLocale>en-GB</SystemLocale>
    <UILanguage>en-GB</UILanguage>
    <UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>
    <UserLocale>en-GB</UserLocale>
</component>
```

```xml
<settings pass="oobeSystem">
    <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS">
    <InputLocale>0809:00000809</InputLocale>
    <SystemLocale>en-GB</SystemLocale>
    <UILanguage>en-GB</UILanguage>
    <UserLocale>en-GB</UserLocale>
    </component>
</settings>
```

These two segments can be added to your final XML file.

The language codes and keyboard codes can be found [here](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-8.1-and-8/hh825682(v=win.10)).

## Post provisioning settings

Once the machine is provisioned, you can also use the following powershell script to change the language and keyboard settings:

```powershell
# Windows 11 and later
Install-Language en-GB -CopyToSettings
Set-Culture en-GB
Set-WinSystemLocale -SystemLocale en-GB
Set-WinUILanguageOverride -Language en-GB
Set-WinUserLanguageList en-GB -Force
Set-WinHomeLocation -GeoId 242

Copy-UserInternationalSettingsToSystem -WelcomeScreen $True -NewUser $True
```

The language codes and keyboard codes can be found [here](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-8.1-and-8/hh825682(v=win.10)).
A list of geoIDs can be found [here](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/intl/table-of-geographical-locations).

For users on an active directory, the following attributes can be set to change the language and keyboard settings:

```powershell
Set-ADUser -Identity $user.SamAccountName -Replace @{
    'c' = 'UK';
    'co' = 'United Kingdom';
    'countryCode' = 826;
    'preferredLanguage' = 'en-GB';
    'msExchUserCulture' = 'en-GB'
}
```

Country code is an ISO 3 digit numeric code, a list can be found [here](https://docs.dnb.com/partner/en-US/iso_country_codes).

## Office 365 settings

365 timezones are used for things like showing relative time to other users, calender events, etc. The timezone can be set with the following powershell script:

```powershell
$timezone = "GMT Standard Time"
Connect-ExchangeOnline

$mailboxes = Get-Mailbox -ResultSize unlimited
$totalMailboxes = $mailboxes.Count
$currentMailbox = 0

$mailboxesUpdated = 0

Write-Host "Processing $totalMailboxes mailboxes"
$mailboxes | ForEach-Object {
    $currentMailbox++
    Write-Progress -Activity "Processing Mailboxes" -Status "Processing mailbox $currentMailbox of $totalMailboxes" -PercentComplete (($currentMailbox / $totalMailboxes) * 100)

    $calendarConfig = Get-MailboxCalendarConfiguration -Identity $_.Identity -WarningAction SilentlyContinue
    if ($calendarConfig.WorkingHoursTimeZone -ne $timezone) {
        Set-MailboxCalendarConfiguration -Identity $_.Identity -WorkingHoursTimeZone $timezone
        Write-Host "Updated calendar timezone for $($_.PrimarySmtpAddress)"
        $mailboxesUpdated++
    }
}

Write-Host "Updated $mailboxesUpdated mailboxes"
```


Language, keyboard and time settings for Windows


After working with teams for a while I've found many endpoints that are critically needed are missing from the official Graph API. [One of these is the ability to change the default settings for assignments in a class team.](http://localhost:3000/articles/how-to-change-the-default-settings-for-teams-assignments-in-bulk) While working with other projects I built a python library to fetch tokens to use in scripts.

Package: [teams-puppet](https://pypi.org/project/teams-puppet/)

Source code: [MS-Teams-Puppet-Account-Manager](https://github.com/Jheesbrough/MS-Teams-Puppet-Account-Manager)

The library works using a headless selenium automated browser to fetch and return the tokens. Due to the nature of the teams client it can be quite slow to fetch (30 seconds per token), but they can be used for up to an hour before expiration. The tokens are especially useful for fetching information from the APIs like delve or skype.

### Example usage

~~~python
import teams_puppet
import requests

puppet = teams_puppet.Puppet("email", "password")

headers = {
    "accept": "application/json",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    "authorization": "Bearer " + puppet.get_token("teams"),
    "X-ClientType": "MicrosoftTeamsAngular",
    "X-HostAppRing": "general"
}

response = requests.get("https://teams.microsoft.com/api/example", headers=headers)
~~~


Manage teams puppet accounts with python


Redirect to <http://jheesbrough.dev/gadgets/winget-generator>


Winget generators



Script to check if the executable exists

~~~powershell
if (Test-Path -Path "C:\Program Files\Adobe Uninstaller\AdobeUninstaller.exe") {
  exit 0
}
else {
  exit 1
}
~~~

Download the uninstaller straight from Adobe's servers

~~~powershell
 if (! (Test-Path -Path "C:\Program Files\Adobe Uninstaller\AdobeUninstaller.exe")) {
    $uninstallerUrl = "https://deploymenttools.acp.adobeoobe.com/Uninstall/Win/AdobeUninstaller.zip"
    $tempZipPath = "$env:TEMP\AdobeUninstaller.zip"
    Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $uninstallerUrl -OutFile $tempZipPath
    $extractPath = "C:\Program Files\Adobe Uninstaller"
    Expand-Archive -Path $tempZipPath -DestinationPath $extractPath -Force
}
~~~


Setup adobe uninstaller


When managing huge amounts of teams classes, individually visiting each class team to change the assignment deadlines is out of the question. Ideally we'd be able to do this with Graph API, but unfortunately at time of writing the official endpoint for assignments __[PATCH /education/classes/{id}/assignmentDefaults](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1360998/https-graph-microsoft-com-v1-0-education-classes-())__ is broken! To get around this we're going to use a user account with the correct permissions to visit each team and change the default assignment deadline. This can be done with a service account, which is a user account that logs into Teams and performs actions on behalf of the user.

<orange>__This is not an official recommended method, but as the official way doesn't work currently it's the working method. Using service accounts means you will be rate limited more, but I haven't had any issues with this method as of yet.__</orange>

The default assignment deadlines (and any other settings you'd like to change) can be found in the teams assignment settings. To get to this page, go to the assignments tab in a team and click on the cogwheel in the top right corner.

There are 7 settings we can change here, and I'll give the syntax and API endpoint needed for changing each one as well as the assignment deadline.

![Assignment Settings](/blog/media/TeamsSelfBot/AssignmentSettings.png)

## Setting up the service account

I would highly recommend not using any account that already exists, as joining more than a thousand teams will slow down the Teams client to a crawl. The new user account doesn't need anything more than the teams license.

Once the account is created, you can get the users ID by checking the URL of the users profile page. The ID is the last part of the URL, after the last slash. It will look something like this: __12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012__

We can then add the user to all the teams classes as an owner (or as Microsoft calls it a teacher, but there is no functional difference) with the following powershell script. If you haven't used powershell with GraphAPI before you'll need to install the module with __[Install-Module Microsoft.Graph](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/microsoftgraph/installation?view=graph-powershell-1.0)__.

~~~powershell
$scopes = "Group.Read.All", "User.ReadBasic.All", "TeamMember.ReadWrite.All"
Connect-MgGraph -Scopes $scopes -NoWelcome

$UserID = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the user ID of the user to add to class teams"

"Getting teams..."

$teamRequest = @{ Uri = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/teams?`$select=id"; Method = 'Get' }

$teams = while ($teamRequest.Uri) {
    $teamResponse = Invoke-MgGraphRequest @teamRequest
    $teamRequest.Uri = $teamResponse.'@odata.nextLink'
    $teamResponse.value
}

$classes = $teams | ForEach-Object -Begin { $progress = 0 } -Process {
    $uri = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/teams/$($_.id)?`$select=specialization,isArchived"
    $teamRequest = Invoke-MgGraphRequest -Uri $uri -Method Get
    $specialization = $teamRequest.specialization
    $isArchived = $teamRequest.isArchived
    if ($isArchived -eq $false -and $specialization -eq "educationClass") {
        $_
    }
    $progress++
    Write-Progress -Activity "Filtering teams" -Status "Teams filtered: $progress out of $($teams.Count)" -PercentComplete (($progress / $teams.Count) * 100)
}

$confirmation = Read-Host -Prompt "Add user to $($classes.Count) active classes? (y/n)"
if ($confirmation -ne "y") { exit }

"Adding user to teams..."

$classes | Foreach-Object -Begin { $progress = 0 } -Process {
    $uri =  "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/teams/$($_.id)/members"
    $userUri = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/$UserID"

    $body = @{
        '@odata.type' = 'microsoft.graph.aadUserConversationMember'
        'roles' = @('owner')
        'user@odata.bind' = $userUri
    }
    Invoke-MgGraphRequest -Uri $uri -Method Post -Body $body > $null

    $progress++
    Write-Progress -Activity "Adding user to teams" -Status "Teams added to: $progress out of $($classes.Count)" -PercentComplete (($progress / $classes.Count) * 100)
}
~~~

Once the script has run (which may take a while depending on how many teams you have) you can check the users profile page on the teams admin console to check that the user has been added to all the teams classes you expected. If you have an excess of 5000 total teams you may want to remove the confirmation prompt and just run the script overnight as although it will only add the service account to class teams, it has to check every team in the tenant to find the specialized ones.

![User added to teams](/blog/media/TeamsSelfBot/TeamsAdded.png)

## Finding the settings to change

Next up we can start changing the settings. The settings are changed with a PATCH request to the __[PATCH https://assignments.onenote.com/api/v1.0/edu/classes/$($_.id)/defaultsAndSettings](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/office/office-365-api/how-to/onenote-classnotebook)__ endpoint. The body of the request is a JSON object with the settings we want to change. The settings I'll be changing here are default due time, whether students are added to assignments that are still active but created before they joined the team, and whether assignments should be automatically added to the students calendar. The settings can be changed in the same way with the following syntax:

~~~powershell
# Default times assignments are due:
"dueTime" = __"HH:MM"__ (24 hour format)

#dd students to assignments created before they joined the team:
"addedStudentAction" = $True__ or $False__

# Add assignments to calendars:
"addToCalendarActionAsEnum" = "none", "studentsOnly", "studentsAndPublisher" or "studentsAndTeachers"

#Enable late submission notifications for teachers:
"enableLateSubmissionNotifications" = $True or $False
~~~

To find these settings we can inspect the network traffic when changing the default settings in the Teams. The settings are found in the __Request Payload__ and the authorization token is found in the __Request Headers__ which we'll need for the next step.

![traffic](/blog/media/TeamsSelfBot/Traffic.png)
![headers](/blog/media/TeamsSelfBot/Headers.png)
![request payload](/blog/media/TeamsSelfBot/Request.png)

## Changing the settings

Once we have the requests we want to make, edit the script below to include the settings you want to change. The script will prompt you for your user ID and then the token you copied from the network traffic.

~~~powershell
$scopes = "User.Read.All"
Connect-MgGraph -Scopes $scopes -NoWelcome

$userID = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the user ID of the service account"
$token = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the user token taken from browser"

if (-Not $token.StartsWith("Bearer ")) {
    $token = "Bearer " + $token
}

$res  = Invoke-MgGraphRequest -Uri "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/${userID}/joinedTeams?`$select=id" -Method Get
$classes = $res.value

$header = @{
    'Authorization' = "${token}"
    'Content-Type' = 'application/json'
    'Accept' = 'application/json'
}


 ## \/ Change the settings here \/ ##

$body = @{
    "defaults" = @{
        "dueTime" = "22:00"
        "addedStudentAction" = $True
        "addToCalendarActionAsEnum" = "studentsOnly"
    }
} | ConvertTo-Json

## /\ Change the settings here /\ ##

$classes | Foreach-Object -Begin { $progress = 0 } -Process {
    $uri = "https://assignments.onenote.com/api/v1.0/edu/classes/$($_.id)/defaultsAndSettings"
    Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $uri -Method Patch -Body $body -Headers $header -ContentType "application/json" -UseBasicParsing > $null
    $progress++
    Write-Progress -Activity "Updating teams settings" -Status "Teams updated: $progress out of $($classes.Count)" -PercentComplete (($progress / $classes.Count) * 100)
}
~~~

This script will take a while to run, but once it's done you can check the assignment settings in the class teams to make sure they've been changed correctly.

## Edits you might want to make in your own deployment of the script

### For larger deployments

- Store the teams ID's you set so when you run the script again it only updates the settings for new teams
- When adding to new teams, finding the list of total classes and the list of classes the user is already in and only adding the user to the new classes


Jae Cheesbrough

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Python Teams Pypi

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Jae Cheesbrough

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PythonTeamsPypi

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Python Teams Pypi

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