I am trying to force a home location for the built-in weather app using Group Policy. 

I have tried to trace these settings using Process Explorer but I cant see where they are written. 

How would I go about forcing this for all users?

I think Ive solved it myself.  There is a file called PersonalData_weather that lives in %localappdata%\Packages\Microsoft.BingWeather_8wekyb3d8bbwe\RoamingState\Cache\cachePersonalDataCache

Simply log in and configure the app as you want it to be for other users (Favourites, Home location) and copy the file to a central location.  Use a Group Policy Preference to copy this file into Users profiles.

Works well.

• Marked as answer by MicroScot Wednesday, October 23, 2013 8:35 AM

I think Ive solved it myself.  There is a file called PersonalData_weather that lives in %localappdata%\Packages\Microsoft.BingWeather_8wekyb3d8bbwe\RoamingState\Cache\cachePersonalDataCache

Simply log in and configure the app as you want it to be for other users (Favourites, Home location) and copy the file to a central location.  Use a Group Policy Preference to copy this file into Users profiles.

Works well.

• Marked as answer by MicroScot Wednesday, October 23, 2013 8:35 AM

Hi,

Im glad to hear that you got it working. 

Thank you for sharing your solutions & experience here. It will be very beneficial for other community members who have similar questions. 

Regards,

I've also discovered this same path.

Although I wish I would have found this thread sooner it would have saved me A LOT of time figuring out the directory where the settings are stored.

I've looked into the PersonalDataCache folder and found 3 files typically. The important one being 

PersonalData_weather.file which seems to be something akin to an XML file. It contains entries for example below:

{"GeoCoordinates":{"Latitude":33.4633598327637,"Longitude":-111.984771728516,"Altitude":0,"Version":0},"City":"Phoenix","State":"AZ","CountryRegion":"United States","LocationType":1,"LocationTypeId":"Phoenix, AZ, United States","ISOCode":"US","Version":0}

{"GeoCoordinates":{"Latitude":32.778148651123,"Longitude":-96.7954025268555,"Altitude":0,"Version":0},"City":"Dallas","State":"TX","CountryRegion":"United States","LocationType":1,"LocationTypeId":"Dallas, TX, United States","ISOCode":"US","Version":0}

After modifying the file and attempting to copy it back into a users profile however it never works. I'd be curious how you were able to actually get NEW users logging in for the first time to properly have the weather location that you want.

I'd also be curious if 2 months into this setting change if it is still working for you?

Also, I'd be curious to know if you are using a GPO to turn on the location services. Or if you have managed to figure out a way to get the weather app to stop asking users if it can use their location the first time they open the app.

• Edited by cyr0nk0r Tuesday, December 10, 2013 12:42 AM

I've also discovered this same path.

Although I wish I would have found this thread sooner it would have saved me A LOT of time figuring out the directory where the settings are stored.

I've looked into the PersonalDataCache folder and found 3 files typically. The important one being 

PersonalData_weather.file which seems to be something akin to an XML file. It contains entries for example below:

{"GeoCoordinates":{"Latitude":33.4633598327637,"Longitude":-111.984771728516,"Altitude":0,"Version":0},"City":"Phoenix","State":"AZ","CountryRegion":"United States","LocationType":1,"LocationTypeId":"Phoenix, AZ, United States","ISOCode":"US","Version":0}

{"GeoCoordinates":{"Latitude":32.778148651123,"Longitude":-96.7954025268555,"Altitude":0,"Version":0},"City":"Dallas","State":"TX","CountryRegion":"United States","LocationType":1,"LocationTypeId":"Dallas, TX, United States","ISOCode":"US","Version":0}

After modifying the file and attempting to copy it back into a users profile however it never works. I'd be curious how you were able to actually get NEW users logging in for the first time to properly have the weather location that you want.

I'd also be curious if 2 months into this setting change if it is still working for you?

Also, I'd be curious to know if you are using a GPO to turn on the location services. Or if you have managed to figure out a way to get the weather app to stop asking users if it can use their location the first time they open the app.

• Edited by cyr0nk0r Tuesday, December 10, 2013 12:42 AM

Hi cyr0nk0r,

I discovered that copying this file only works if the user has already fired up the Weather application.  I then use Item-level targeting in the Group Policy Preference to replace the file if it exists.  This has the effect of "resetting" a users customization of the App everytime they log on which is what I was looking for.

Ideally, I wouldnt copy this file every time at logon but its tiny so it doesnt affect logon speed so I didnt spent any more time writing a script to do this more intelligently.

Location services are switched on but I have deployed a GPS sensor as part of my build (the laptops have it built in) so it does work.

Hope this answers your question.

ouch. so until they use the weather app for the first time it will still report London or some weird city that isn't anywhere near our geographic location?

From my experience, yes.  Its not really ideal but it works.

Is it possible even to change the temperature to Celsius for all users? Handy since Farenheit isn't used anymore outside the US. (I think even scientists in the US tend to use Celcius?)

Has anyone tried this as part of image (WIM? I mean, configurying weather application for administrator account and copying it over to default user profile by using 'copy profile' method while deploying windows 8.1 images to many computers using tools like MDT or configuration manager ? Any pointers would be appreciated. Thanks

Regards