Alan D

I have XP SP2. I recently received an unusual alert from an antispyware scanner (a-squared) concerning a tracking cookie in the LocalService folder (C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Cookies). I'd previously been unaware of the existence of this folder, because it's a hidden systems folder. Unticking the relevant box under 'folder options' so I could see it, I discovered that this Cookies folder contained a few other (non-tracking)cookies and an Index.dat file. I regularly use CCleaner to clear out unnecessary cookies, but it appears that CCleaner doesn't touch this LocalService folder under normal circumstances. My question is: can I safely add this as a custom folder to be cleaned by CCleaner? Does it matter if that Index.dat file is deleted from the LocalService folder, or will Windows simply renew it, as it does with other index.dat files in more obvious places? [As a side issue: anyone know why a website would plant a cookie (of any kind) in there? It hardly ever seems to happen - and apart from the tracking cookie there's no indication of even mildly malicious intent (one was from Paypal, one from Google, for instance).]

Thanks. That seems to be something like what I've done, and so far it seems to have worked. Well, all the cookies in the folder end in either [1] or [2]. I'm not sure I can deduce anything from that.

Actually, Hazel, I think I may have fixed it - or at least persuaded it to fix itself - though I haven't a clue why. I cleaned out all the cookies, then went around and visited the websites that had caused problems, and suddenly - there were the missing cookies, presenting themselves for protection. My theory is that Ccleaner knew you were on the case, and decided to cooperate.

For example, having done no cleaning, just now there are 50 cookies listed as present after using 'analyse'; but only 14 cookies available for protection under 'options'.

Oh yes. I visit Google far more often than I clean, but the cookie never appears as an item offering itself for protection under 'options'. Only as an item to be deleted when 'analysed' in the cleaner section.

Hello, and thank you. Yes, that's exactly what I'm doing. Except that I can't move across the cookies that it doesn't list in the left hand column, but which I know ought to be there.

I've been using Ccleaner for 2 or 3 weeks, and I'm encountering a cookie issue that baffles me. Can someone please help? I'm using XP and IE6. The problem is arising when I use the 'Options' section in order to register some cookies as the ones I want to protect from cleaning. The list of cookies that's presented is not the same (it's much shorter) than the list I see when I use the 'Analyse' tab in the cleaning section. Not all the cookies are listed, including some of those that I want to protect. So, of course, I can't protect them. For example, the Google cookie that saves my Google preferences isn't present in the list of cookies available for protection, even though I can see it listed when I analyse cookies in the cleaning section. It's frustrating - because I can protect some cookies, but not others - and the only way I can find my way round the problem is to use Ultra Win Cleaner for cookie removal, because it doesn't have this problem. Can anyone help, please?