I am trying to understand the term "cookie enabled", and how to achieve this.

I do understand about cookies generally, and the importance of deleting cookies occasionally, but especially after banking etc. I even know how to do this, via Settings - Internet Options - General - Delete Cookies, and I am quite attentive to doing this.

However, I have looked at an on-line university course which requires that my PC be "cookies enabled", I suppose for interaction between my PC and the university's system, but....

I cannot relate, on the one hand, to regularly deleting all my cookies and managing, on the other hand, to retain a specific one for a linkage to the university. I have searched high up and low down, but have not been able to learn how to create and maintain an individual cookie, while regularly deleting others. Does this make sense? Can you help? Thanks in advance,

PS: I am such a neophyte that I'm really not even sure if I'm posting to the correct forum. Apologies in advance, if I've not done this correctly.

Not all cookies are evil, and not all should be deleted on a regular basis. Many cookies contain sign-on passords, or are used by the site to maintain valid information about your position on the site.
You should be able to enable cookies on whatever browser you are using, but have the browser ask for permission before allowing a cookie. Your browser should also allow you to view all cookies and make individual decisions about which to keep and which to delete.
Regards,
John

To allow specific cookies in Internet Explorer:

Open IE.
Click Tools.
Click the Privacy tab.
Click the Sites... button.
In the Address of Web site: box, type in the address of the site you want to allow.
Click the Allow button.
Click OK.
Now, any time you go to that site, cookies will automatically be accepted.

Now, click the Advanced button.
Put a check in the Override automatic cookie handling box.
Under First-party Cookies, select Prompt.
Under Third-party Cookies, select Block.
Click OK.
Click Apply.
Click OK.

Now, any time a site, not in your allowed sites, tries to set cookies, you will be asked if you want to allow it, or not.

If your using Firefox:

Open Firefox.
Click Tools.
Select Options....
Click Privacy.
Click the "+" sign, next to Cookies.
Click the Exceptions button.
In the Address of web site: box, type in the address of the one you want to allow.
Click the Allow button.
Click OK.

Now, that site, will always be allowed to set cookies.

CCleaner is a tool for removing junk files. It incorporates a cookie handler. To access it, open CCleaner and click the options button. Click Cookies and here you can protect the cookies you want to keep when you run CCleaner. You can use this instead of deleting your temporary internet files, cookies, history, etc. through IE Tools>Internet Options. It also does a much better job than IE and Windows Disk Cleanup combined. Just stay away from the Applications tab or the Issues (Registry Cleaner) tab unless you know exactly what your doing and have a specific issue that needs attention.

Another good one specifically for cookies is Jason's Cookie Jar. It allows you to protect the cookies you want and can be set to automatically delete all other cookies at start up.

If you use one of these methods, you would not delete your cookies through IE>Tools>Internet Options.

Nice tip on CCleaner, Leurgy.
Thanks.

Thanks for all of the advice. I have downloaded both Jason's Cookie Jar and CCleaner in order to look at both, and have run CCleaner. Should I uninstall Jason's Cookie Jar?

Also, why does one need to install such programs from the Internet, rather than an operating system coming fully loaded with such tools?

If you are using the cookie handler in CCleaner you can uninstall Jason's, its up to you.




Many people complain that operating systems are already bloated and there are such a myriad of companion programs out there that it would be impossible for Windows to do everything. In many cases these companion programs take a Windows function and improve upon it. That is the case with CCleaner. It expands on the functions of Windows Disk Cleanup and goes one step further in cleaning items that Windows would leave behind for some reason.

Thanks again. Next.........

I've retained both Jason's Cookie Jar and CCleaner, for now, and have looked at each of them a couple of times, trying to understand what they do, really. I've observed that more cookies are appearing in JCJ than in CC. It isn't obvious to me if they are good or bad. Some are obvious sites that I know I've visited and would want to retain, but others are a bit of a mystery. Any hints on how I assess the mystery ones?

Also, the cookies appear unbidden. I can't see where I would choose to type in the name of a site to allow its cookies, for example, the university example that I used in the initial question that started this string.

Thanks for any more help.

A bad cookie is never obvious. A program like Ad-Aware or Spybot will identify the tracking cookies. Don't know why CC sees more than JCJ, although CC, as a junk file cleaner, will investigate more areas of your hard drive. Those mystery cookies are ones placed by advertisements in sites you visit no doubt. These are usually the tracking cookies. They record your surfing behaviour and report the results, but aren't a major threat.

Cookie Central has some good info on the subject.

Thank you again. I'll take it from here.

Hi there,

You don't need to maintain a certian cookie - you need only maintain the ability to accept them.

It doesn't care which chocolate chip cookie you take so long as you take one. (I know, lame joke)

These warnings are specifically for those who limit or restrict cookies. If you are minitoring your cookies you will have the opportunity to say "I always want cookies from this vendor", or in computer-ese "Always allow cookies from this source".

Good luck with you education.