This Microsoft Tuesday had an IE patch # KB2559049 which change the way cookies used to be read to an alpha-numeric txt. ie, CDRV54HG txt. BTW it only affect cookies in IE.
Is CCleaner removing them when running CCleaner ? According to Corrine (MVP Security Garden) they are not. I ran my own test and CCleaner removed some, left some:
Gotta wonder if the cookie-scrambling MS "update" was designed to fool the average user who might otherwise recognize a cookie as a spyware/tracking cookie, e.g., ad.yieldmanager.com, adbureau.com, etc. If we don't recognize the now-gibberish cookies as spyware, we can't use IE's site blocking feature in Tools>Internet options>Privacy>Sites to block them. This issue also raises the question as to whether or not spyware detection/removal programs like some common Internet Security
Suites can still recognize gibberish spyware/tracking cookies as such and deal with them accordingly. Googling a named cookie certainly reveals which are spyware/tracking cookies but when I Google the new gibberish idents, I consistently get 'no match found'. Would not surprise me in the least to find that MS is working in concert with cookie-planting marketing and advertising companies as MS used some spyware/tracking cookies itself recognizable by use of 'ad' or 'market(ing)' as part of the MS cookie name. Deviance thy name is Microsoft!