About Cookies
What and Where is a Cookie?
A cookie is the one exception to the security rule that web sites cannot write to your machine. If you configure your browser to accept cookies, the browser can create a text file on your hard drive.
Cookies chiefly provide convenience to you rather than espionage for hackers and marketers. Cookies save information—most commonly names and passwords—so you don’t have to re-key it next time. For security, browsers limit the size and number of cookies they will save, and if a cookie does not specify an expiration date, the browser destroys it upon shutdown.
Control cookies settings in browsers as follows:
Firefox 2.x: See tools/ options… / privacy/ cookies.
Firefox stores all cookies in a single file. For it’s location, search the machine for cookies.txt.
Internet Explorer 6.x, 7.x: See tools/ internet options/ privacy/ sites…
Explorer stores a separate file for each web site that writes cookies. For the file location, see tools/ internet options/ general/ temporary internet files/ settings/ view files.
Internet Explorer 5.x: See tools/ internet options/ security/ internet/ custom level/ cookies.
Explorer 5.x stores a separate file for each web page that writes cookies; see something like C:\ Win\ profiles\ username\ cookies\ pagePath.txt.
Netscape 6.x & 7.x: See edit/ preferences/ privacy & security/ cookies.
Netscape 6.x & 7.x save all cookies in a single file, “cookies.txt,” in a directory similar to C:\ WINNT\ Profiles\ yourname\ Application Data\ Mozilla\ .
Netscape 4.x: See edit/ preferences/ advanced.
Netscape 4.x saves all cookies in a single file, “cookies.txt,” in the same directory where you told it to store your cache, mail, etc. That directory is specified at edit/ preferences/ advanced/ cache; see the line “Disk Cache Folder.”
Changing cookie options may require shutting down and restarting the browser. Disabling cookie support may destroy all your existing cookies.