by Ethel Smith

Created on: May 07, 2008

WHAT IS A COOKIE.

For any reader who may not know, a Cookie is a small piece of information which is placed on your computer from an Internet site that you have accessed. This can help the web site to keep a track of its users. On the whole cookies are relatively harmless on your computer. However each time you use the Internet, to access a particular site, a Cookie will be placed on your computer which means that eventually there could be hundreds if not more. These are only usually small files but, if they are not deleted or controlled on a regular basis, they will still help to fill your hard drive thus slowing down your computer's performance. Cookies at times do feel a bit like Big Brother is watching your every move and personally I like to delete them on a regular basis.

COMPUTER SETTINGS.

It is possible to set your computer Internet Options so that no Cookies are accepted at all. However if you do this you will not be able to access all Internet sites. If you want to set these options to disable all or some cookies simply:-

Open Internet Explorer.
Click on the Tools button and select Internet Options.
Select the Privacy Tab and move the slider to the appropriate setting.

As there are different levels of Cookies this enables you to disable all or some Cookies dependent on your choice. After all some Cookies store information that will enable the site to contact you without prior consent. I have my Internet Options set at Medium which seems to allow me full access to the Internet without too many associated problems.

FINDING AND DELETING COOKIES.

Either right click on the Internet Explorer icon and from the drop down menu select properties or select Internet Options in the way described in the above paragraph. This time select the General tab. Here you will find the option to delete items such as Cookies, Temporary Internet Files and your Internet History. Simply go to the browsing History and select delete. This will take you to another page where you can choose to delete all of the above or perhaps just the Cookies. You need to remember though that some of these information stores actually hold your password information and make it quick and easy to access sites such as Helium, where you may be a member.

It is also possible to find Cookies from the Search or Find utility which is accessed from the start button. Simply type in Cookies in the search box and search the computers files. This will enable you to double click on the Cookie folder and only delete the Cookies which you want to. If you actually access this folder you may get a nasty surprise when you discover just how many Cookies are lurking there.

CONCLUSION.

Deleting Cookies is really very simple. You may find though that you want to select which Cookies to delete rather than using the Internet Option facility and deleting them all.

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