I have tried setting the default to the: option value, display text, and even an index integer, but regardless the first time zone in the list is always displayed. Note that the only reason had to try this in the first place was because DNN was not using the site’s time zone. My recollection is that it used the sites time zone as a default in version prior to 7.

Bob, I'm not aware of a "default time zone" setting for the site. Under the Usability Settings section there is Site TimeZone which is correctly set to Central, but that setting appears to have no affect on the default when a new user goes to register.

What/where is this "default time zone" setting you are referring to?

We are clearly referring to the same setting (see my link to a screen shot previously in this thread).

It does not work from me on 07.02.02 (303) and apparently for others too, see https://dnntracker.atlassian.net/browse/DNN-22162.

In your implementation are you requiring the preferred timezone to be selected when a new user registers?