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Managing IE4 Cookies

© Tracey Kirkpatrick-Pritchett

This article is sort of a continuation of the Managing the IE4 Cache article from 2 weeks ago. While it stands on its own as a "cookies and privacy" article, it will prove more meaningful in context of the Cache Management article.

Cookies in General

This article is based on the assumption that you don't want to eliminate all cookies, because some are beneficial to you; just most cookies, either for reasons of privacy, or hard disk space and performance.

IE4 Cookie Folders

If you manage your cookies at all (ie, not just reject or delete them all), you have to manually view each cookie to decide whether or not to keep it.

There are two directories used for cookies in IE4:

• {systemroot}\Profiles\{user}\Cookies

• {systemroot}\Profiles\{user}\Temporary Internet Files

According to Knowledge Base article Q158769, the cookies in the Temporary Internet Files directory (TIF) are really only pointers to the real thing in the Cookies directory, but if you elect to remove these pointers, you'll remove the actual cookies in the Cookies directory as well. This doesn't work both ways; if you remove the real cookies from the Cookies directory, the pointers in TIF will remain.

So if you elect to manage your cookies manually, using the TIF directory is the way to go.

Use NTFS compression on the "keepers", which will turn the filename blue, so you know you can later delete all cookies that are the regular [black] color.

Cookie Management Software for IE4

There are cookie utilities that either accept/reject cookies while you're browsing, or ones that will delete cookies on your HDD either during or after browsing. Unfortunately, most cookie programs of either type (blockers or deleters) don't let you specify cookies to accept or keep: they are "all or nothing" prospects. I looked only to programs that offered at least a semblance of control over which cookies to allow or keep.

The two "blockers" I found that'll work on NT both let you filter sites from which you will accept cookies, and they'll let you view/delete cookies already present on your hard disk.:

Cookie Crusher, which works with NT 4.0 if you use the "runtime files", not the zip files (available from the same site). For $15, you get both Cookie Crusher and CyberClean, a one-button "internet debris" deletion tool. And,

Cookie Pal, with the exception that it doesn't officially support IE4 later than the beta version. $15.

The two "deleters" I found are:

Cookie Cutter PC, which makes you select the "keepers" each time you run it. $15. And

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