Everywhere you go, internet sites are giving you Cookies. Are you leaving a trail of Cookie Crumbs all over the Internet?
Temporary Internet Files:The Good, the Bad, and the Junk
By Bill Phelps
A cautionary note""those cookie crumbs you're dropping as you travel through cyberspace can create a mess that could clean you out in a courtroom. Remember Microsoft? Recent court cases where email correspondence that people thought they deleted were on other machines and got exhibit numbers!
Did you know, that every time you cruise the net there are herds of temporary files, cookies, and picture files loaded into: C:\\Windows\Temporary Internet Files(for Microsoft Internet Explorer) and C:\Program Files\Netscape\User\Cache (for Netscape Navigator or Communicator) Now, be honest, have you ever checked any temp file folders? Most people don't know there's something wrong until Windows doesn't come up or applications start "acting funny." Every time you go cruising your browser's history file is updated. For those of you doing some net at work, well most employers now have sampling software that takes a snapshot of the browser history ion the network. You're leaving cookie crumbs. All right, I hear you talking, "what do I do to keep these things from over-running my hard drive?
In Internet Explorer (all Versions) you go into the Internet Options. Then you click on the Advanced tab and scroll down to security. Then just check the box that says delete Temporary Internet Files when the Browser is Closed. That will make them all "go away". I don't see why this isn't automatically set, but you'd have to take that up with Microsoft. Yeah, I spend a whole lot of time on the web and every time I close the browser down all those files just "go away" without me having to do anything.
The same delete option appears on Outlook Express so check it too. Email files can take up scads of space. Hint - read them and delete them or save them to another location, but don't leave them in Outlook Express or Communicator.
In Netscape these options reside under Edit\Perferences along with a whole bunch of things you might want Navigator and Communicator to do for you when you get online or close the program.
Cookies are a whole other matter, some you want to keep, so you don't want at all, and some you want to make "go away" too. Illustration two is Windows Explorer. Just go tiptoeing through there and be ruthless. If you don't remember where it came from delete it. Delete any files that don't have a good date. Delete any files that don't have an expiration date. But keep the cookie from you home page, Internet Mail Account(s), and Sites where you have some sort of history saved. The Webmaster is going to put your history on your computer in a cookie. That way when you go onto the site the server reads the cookie and update the links that you've already look through and other good stuff.If you want absolute control over which cookies you get you just turn the security setting up on the cookies and tell the browser to inform you every time the remote wants to put a cookie on the system. But, that can get ugly if you do lots of cruising. Or you can disable cookies entirely. Remember that some cookies are good. You know, I've never got a malicious cookie. Some were annoying, and took up space, but they weren't bad. Make your own decisions about cookies. Cookies usually say who they're from keep the ones from sites you trust. Make clearing out and cleaning up part of your regular maintenance. Go through your files a couple of times a month to see what temp files are on the drive, if the temporary internet files have really gone away and how many cookies there are in the jar. So, just go in to the temporary files and delete them with a good old three-finger salute Control+Alt Delete.
