Can depleting Internet Explorer cookies and/or files hinder computer operation?

Question

Should one or both of these be deleted periodically? I have depleted both of these and now I can get only generic web pages. I think this is because of depleting the cookies. Also, It seems like all of my 12 computers are much slower since I have taken this action. could one of these deletions be the cause? Will system restore undo both oft these actions?

Answer 1

removing cookies won't impact performance negatively, it just - as you state - makes some websites seems "less personalized" since the personalized stuff - about you - is sometimes stored in cookies. don't worry about deleting cookies unless losing your personalization seems like a hassle.

as far as "other files" if you are referring to the temporary internet files, there's nothing bad that comes with this! in fact, it should *improve* the performance of your computer as your systems can get "clogged" with data from the internet if you never clear this cache.

so the short and sweet: it's fine to clear both cookies and cache

Answer 2

Your system should actually be running faster now. Perhaps your web surfing has brought in some form of adware or spyware. You might try running a program to find and delete these types of files. As far as the generic websites, all you have to do is reset your options and they'll be stored again. You did the right thing. You should delete cookies, files, and history on a regular basis. It just takes up memory on your system.

Answer 3

Actually that is something which you need to do regularly. Deleteing cookies and cache is good for your computer. These are files which gets deposited in your computer and in turn makes your computer very slow.

Answer 4

If you have IDs and passwords on cookies deleting them will temporarily hamper your access to those sites. However, the first time you visit and put in your ID and password again you will have another cookie holding this information and the next time accessing the site will be normal again.

Sometimes if you set you cookie privacy too high you will not be able to access some websites, like Yahoo! Mail. The meduim setting is the only one which will allow you to access that feature of Yahoo! I know as I tried setting mine higher and I was unable to access my mail until I changed it back. It seems that some sites HAVE to have the cookies in order to properly serve up individualized pages. If they do not have the information in the form of a cookie on your system they are unable to process the site for users.

Now, deleting cookies and temp folders is a healthy thing to do. Over the course of several months of serfing the web, each and every single web page you visit is placed as a copy on your system taking up valuable hard disk space. The more space taken up the slower your computer will run. Deleting these temp files will enable you to speed up your system not slow it down.

There is a great little program called CCleaner, which stands for Crap Cleaner. It has a cookie managment tool. a temp file tool, a registry cleanup tool, a startup folder tool, and a software removal tool. The program is free and takes up very little room on your hard disk and is simple to use, yet powerful. I have been using this program for about six months now and recently installed it on my other computers too.

Now, each time you remove software from your system fragments are left behind in the registry. This is what can slow down systems and cause sluggishness and crashes of IE and WE. It is good to clear out the registry but as this part of the OS is so fragile it is scary to mess with it if you are not a very knowlegable user. I highly reccomend this program to even the most novice users. You can access it here:

http://cnet.com/downloads

In the search box at the top right of the screen put in ccleaner adn then click go and it will bring up a page with this program link. Click the link and you will be taken directly to the download page. Read the user ratings and you will see how many are using this and how much they all like it. If you feel comfortable go ahead and download it and install it on your system.

After installing this program you will be given a link (if you read all the material) to go and get the instructions for use. They consist of about seven pages of screenshots and easy to read and follow instructions. Very simple but powerful tool.

When you first open up the tool, go to your options and click the radio button to enable the program to prompt you to save a backup of the registry prior to working on cleaning it up. It is very easy to do, just click Yes, a save dialog will appear, choose your documents then click save and it is saved. After you have the program check the registry, go ahead and let the program delete all the broken and fragmented files, orphaned file extensions, and shortcuts and icon referances. Then use the cleanup tool to check your entire system for unneeded files and go ahead and delete them.

Now, the cookie manager will allow you to select any cookie you want to save on your system. Just highlight it by clicking it in the left column and then click the arrow to move it to the right area. The cookies in the right area will never be deleted until you move them back to the left area. I use this all the time to keep the cookies I want and to delete the ones which junk up and clog my system.

Good luck and hope you get your systems running as they use too. Use the software removeal tool with ccleaner instead of the Add/Remove Applet. It works much better at getting rid of software and not leaving behind junk in the registry than Add?Remove Programs does.

You will need to run the Registry Tool a few times to completely clean it up. After it removes one end of a broken string it will need to go back and clean out the next key in the broken string. So, just continue to "evaluate" and then "delete" untill the window comes up empty.

After you run the Registry tool go and open your programs and make srue all is in order. If any problems go into your My Documents, right click on the saved backup file and select Merge. It merges back into the Registry. Simple.

I have never had to Merge a backup after cleaning the Registry thought, so I doubt you will either.

Answer 5

System restore will put everything back before you deleted those programs.If your computers are running slow,defrag,clean files,run a spyware scan and reboot.

Answer 6

my computer does that, you really arent suppose to delete the cookies very often becuase yahoo needs some to run it.
but you can delete them every now and then.