Cookies

[Mimi Barohn]

Photographic sites were downloaded onto my computer by a
10-year old boy, and the icons were put on my desktop. I
have successfully removed the icons, but want to go into
the program and remove the cookies. How do I do this?
Also, how do I protect my computer in the future from
another person being able to download these sites?

 

[Chris Lanier]

In IE Tools>>Internet Opitions>>Delete Cookies. Most of the time the
programs that get installed might be in your Add/Remove Contorl Panel. A
spyware and virus scan are also good at removing them.

Net Nanny - Parent-Friendly Software for Protecting Kids Online
http://www.netnanny.com/index.html

 

[Bob Knowlden]

If you're using Microsoft Internet Explorer, you can get rid of cookies by
going to tools/Internet Options and clicking the Delete Cookies button. This
will get rid of *all* cookies, which may include passwords to some Web
sites.

Resetting the History can avoid another sort of embarrassment. (I presume
that you meant "pornographic" rather than "photographic".) If file name
completion is active, you can clear some of the stored site names by going
to the tools/Internet Options/Content tab, and clicking the AutoComplete
button.

I found that some sites save file name completion information in the
index.dat files. I believe that those can only be deleted under XP by
starting up in command line safe mode.

I can't recommend any particular web site blocking software, as I've never
tried any. (My machine is never used by children.)

If a young boy has been downloading dubious stuff, he probably got some
spyware installed on your machine as well. I suggest getting the freeware
AdAware (http://www.lavasoft.us/) or Spybot Search and Destroy
(http://www.safer-networking.org/). (I use both, myself.) I've read some
claims of problems being created by both, but I've had none. (Either I'm
lucky, the complainers were mistaken, or the complainers were running
software that *requires* spyware to run. Some "freeware" I've tried in the
past has been like that. I expect that stuff like Kazaa still is.)

Good luck.

Bob Knowlden

Address may be altered to avoid spam. Replace nkbob with bobkn.