Cookie issue

On my system, cookies are stored within my profile, under both the Local Settings, Temporary Internet Files, and the Cookies folder. Hopefully, this is normal.

When I run CCleaner, the Cookies to save option, addresses the Temporary Internet File cookies, but does not address the actual Cookies folder.

When I run CCleaner, with Cleaner settings for Internet Explorer, Cookies, the file uses the actual Cookies file under my profile.

Is my file structure setup normal? Are there actually cookies in both locations, and is CCleaner addressing both?

Thanks!

Hello, and welcome to the CC Forum!

Cookies are stored in various places, depending on the browser. The location you mention stores Internet Explorer cookies, Firefox and other browser store them elsewhere.

Ccleaner knows these cookie locations and will find and either delete or keep them, according to your settings.

The cookies are actually only in one place, the other folder is just another view displaying the filename in a different syntax.

If you copy a cookie, e.g., Cookie:username@news.google.ca from C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files to any other folder, it'll turn into username@news.google[1].txt ... the same name as shown in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Cookies.

If you delete a cookie in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files, it will disappear from C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Cookies. If you do the reverse, it won't disappear but it won't be accessible, i.e., you'll get the error message "Cannot read from the source file or disk."

Because of this asymmetry, it's possible for the two lists to get out of synch and look different .

Wow! Thanks for the clear and concise response. I definitely never understood how that works.

PS: I'm using IE6. I was using IE7 and really liked it, but had some cookie issues with it and fell back. At that time, I hadn't fully set up different profiles on my computer, but have now. I feel that I'm ready to retry IEt.

Thanks!