what are cookies, and how do i find them on my pc?

Answer 1

What Are Internet Cookies?

As Microsoft continues to release security patches to address various vulnerability within the Windows Operating System, accepting Cookies has become a public concern. As a result, many people are actually disabling their Internet Browsers from accepting cookies. Therefore, I decided to write a technical brief outlining what Cookies are so you can decide for yourself whether to accept them or not.


Cookies

Cookies are actually harmless text files that certain web sites will place onto the hard drive of your computer. Your Internet Browser will then load the information into memory while you are visiting their site. The Cookie itself, actually takes up very little space and acts as an identification card for the visiting site. You can compare this to visiting your favorite restaurant where your food server will usually remember certain aspects of how you like your food prepared and what you usually order. This information would obviously be based upon his familiarity of your prior visits. Well Cookies actually act in a similar manner and do not contain viruses as a virus must be executable file. Let us look at some of the ways that Cookies act as an identification card.

Why Sites Use Cookies?

There are numerous reasons why websites would want to use cookies. These range from statistical purposes, such as how many visitors came to the site. This can be further broken down into are they new visitors or actually repeating visitors and how often do they visit. The Website would actually create a unique id for each visitor and store this information into a database.

Cookies can be used to store your personal preferences, referred to as customizations, that you set while navigating their site. For instance, if you visit Yahoo.com, you can sign in to create your very own personal yahoo page where you can customize it according to your news and weather preferences after providing your zip code. You can even change the color of the page layout as well.

Online Shopping sites can use cookies to keep track of items that you add to their shopping carts and quick checkout options. The cookie will keep track of every item that you add to the shopping cart while you continue to browse through different pages or even entirely different sections of their site. Every item you add is stored within the Web site’s database along with a unique ID value that has been assigned to you. Therefore, when you select the check out option, the site automatically knows what items are in your cart by retrieving those selections from its database. This is why sites such as Amazon or eBay will prompt you to enable cookies in case you have disabled them.

Cookies also provide web designers and programmers with a quick and convenient method of keeping their site content fresh and up to date according to the interests of their users. Modern web servers use Cookies for back-end interaction as well, allowing them to securely store any personal data that the user has entered within a site. Therefore, on return visits the user now only has to enter partial information to access their account and purchases can be made quicker as their payment information is on file regarding their previous purchases.

In closing, as Cookies are actually small text files, they really can not damage your computer system or any files on your hard drive. Once again, they cannot transmit viruses as viruses are executable in nature. Some users may just not want to be tracked and this is one of the primary reasons why many people just disable accepting cookies.


For The Latest Version of Internet Explorer

Click on the word Tools, which is contained in your top tool bar area.

This will pull down a menu for you to now click on Internet Options.

Then click on the Privacy tab located at the top of the options windows.

Then click on the Advanced tab to bring up the Advanced Privacy Settings windows.

This is the area where you can define how Cookies are handled on your system etc.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Definition of a cookie from m-w.com:

3 cookie : a small file or part of a file stored on a World Wide Web user's computer, created and subsequently read by a Web site server, and containing personal information (as a user identification code, customized preferences, or a record of pages visited)

I believe in Windows 2000 and higher, you will find your computer cookies in the following folder:

C:\documents and settings\\cookies

You can, from there, manually delete your cookies except for your index.dat. To remove that file, you would need to download a privacy file wiper. Below is a link:

http://www.download.com/iISystem-Wiper/3000-2144_4-10347999.html?tag=lst-0-1

Answer 4

HTTP cookies, sometimes known as web cookies or just cookies, are parcels of text sent by a server to a web browser and then sent back unchanged by the browser each time it accesses that server. HTTP cookies are used for authenticating, tracking, and maintaining specific information about users, such as site preferences and the contents of their electronic shopping carts. The term "cookie" is derived from "magic cookie," a well-known concept in Unix computing which inspired both the idea and the name of HTTP cookies.

Cookies have been of concern for Internet privacy, since they can be used for tracking browsing behavior. As a result, they have been subject to legislation in various countries such as the United States and in the European Union. Cookies have also been criticised because the identification of users they provide is not always accurate and because they could potentially be used for network attacks. Some alternatives to cookies exist, but each has its own drawbacks.

Cookies are also subject to a number of misconceptions, mostly based on the erroneous notion that they are computer programs. In fact, cookies are simple pieces of data unable to perform any operation by themselves. In particular, they are neither spyware nor viruses, despite the detection of cookies from certain sites by many anti-spyware products.

Most modern browsers allow users to decide whether to accept cookies, but rejection makes some websites unusable. For example, shopping baskets implemented using cookies do not work if cookies are rejected.

GO TO:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookie_%28computing%29

Answer 5

This is a very good explanation of cookies and what they do.

Cookies are probably the most misunderstood feature of computerdom. They are often depicted as menacing tools of surveillance. Many even show up in the results of spyware scans. But the truth is that cookies are not as powerful as they seem.

Cookies do not give direct access to your computer. Unlike viruses and spyware, cookies are not programs. They are inert text files that can't do much of anything. Some advertisers do abuse them. But, by and large, cookies do much more good than evil.

Cookies allow Web sites to be interactive. As text files, cookies provide the means for Web pages within the same site to pass notes to each other. Otherwise, any selections you make on one page are forgotten as soon as you click to another page.

Cookies are useful for shopping sites. A cookie can store a list of items you've selected to buy as you browse different product pages. Then the checkout page can read that list from the cookie. Another use for cookies is Web site customization. Cookies can be used to store your preferences for whenever you revisit a particular site.

Cookies usually do not carry information identifying a particular computer. You could transfer your cookies to another computer and use them just as well. They identify your computer to Web sites only as much as your car keys identify you to your car.

Bad eggs: Third-party cookies

Most browsers allow cookies to be read by only the Web site to which they belong. This makes it difficult for any one site to track your Web surfing.

However, sometimes an advertiser will issue its own cookies. The cookies can be used to recognize your computer at other sites associated with that advertiser. Known as third-party cookies, they can be an invasion of privacy.

Internet Explorer has privacy settings to address third-party cookies. Open Internet Explorer and click Tools>>Internet Options. Select the Privacy tab. Click the Advanced button.

Click to mark the checkbox labeled "Override automatic cookie handling." You'll see options for first-party and third-party cookies. In the third-party cookie options, select Block. Then click OK.

As I mentioned, cookies do not give access to your computer. Regardless, a computer without security programs is vulnerable online. Always use a firewall, an antivirus program and anti-spyware software. You can find these security programs on my Web site.

Answer 6

Cookies are little bits of information web sites store on your computer. Where you can find them depends on the browser you are using. It is usually in the options or preferences section.

Answer 7

In layman's terms: A cookie is a small file that identifies your computer for a website, usually. They also store your sign-in names when you ask a program to remember you. When you sign in to a website that has a cookie on your computer, it recognizes your computer. Sometimes website hosters want data on such things as what you go to on their site for marketing purposes. They are generally harmless. Where to find them depends on which browser you are using.

Answer 8

Hi. Cookies are small data files left by sites you visit to tell those sites (and others) info about what you visited. The are usually in a folder called "Cookies" somewhere in your "My Documents" file.

Answer 9

There are several ways to do so. For internet cookies, and I assume you are using Internet Explorer, go to Tools>Internet Options>Delete Cookies>OK.

For other cookies:
Go to search>all files and folders>search:cookies>delete the ones you wish.

Cookies usually store information. It is usually not needed.

Answer 10

cookies are a txt like info within IE Exporer directory.
Wesites use it to track your prerences during your webbrowsing experience. Its usefull when you will buy one service or to check preferences during interactive website.

Spywares sometimes analyses these cookies and create an profile linked to your users. sometuimes, even websites can track your web history to create profiles. ....

IE Explorer have it easilly in PREFERENCES

Answer 11

I LOVE cookies, i will be watching this space to find how i can get cookies from my P.C. Can you request flavour?