IE6 Cookies issue (on WinMe)

[Woody]

I've a friend who has been having troubles with his Internet Explorer
Cookies for several months (IE6 SP1 on Windows Me, recently updated with
IE6 SP1 Cumulative Service Patch for August 2003).

Some websites accept his cookies but others don't and won't set a new
cookie (session or persistent). I've turned off all IE6 settings (and any
firewall and antivirus settings) that might have an impact keeping his
cookies from being accepted but the problem continues. These problem sites
previously wrote and accepted his cookies just fine. So I think he has a
corrupted cookie cache, if you will.

I've cleared out his Temporary Internet Files folder, History and Cookies
folder. I booted in SafeMode and deleted the index.dat files in the
Temporary Internet Files and History folders. However I wasn't able to
delete the index.dat in the Cookies folder as Windows reported it was in
use (no programs were running in SafeMode except Windows Explorer [not
Internet Explorer], so I assume Windows Explorer had that index.dat file
open).

I searched the web and found/installed/ran a program called Tweak IE 3.1
which is supposed to kill the index.bat file(s) during a reboot. But I
still see the index.dat file there with a 208KB size! (I then removed
TweakIE as my friend does indeed want all his persistent cookies to remain
on this particular machine and does not want to deal with managing
cookies).

I found a program called PurgeIE which supposedly "blanks out" the
index.dat file rather than deleting it. But I'm holding out for a better
solution.

I've searched MS's Support KnowledgeBase and TechNet notes without finding
much if any info on this particular issue. But if you search google on
"index.dat hidden" there are a lot of people with the same issue. Why can't
MS add to their IE Cookie FAQ a list of possible solutions?

In the meantime my friend is having to use Netscape 7.1 to access the sites
that won't work with IE6.

Woody

 

[Mike Burgess]

Woody,
You need to use the DOS method rather than Safe Mode ......

You may need to clear your TIF as you may have a corrupt file there.

Close all instances of OE and IE
Control Panel | Internet Options | General tab
Click the "Delete Files" button, when prompted place a check in:
"Delete all offline content", click OK
Click the "Clear History" button, click OK.
Click the Settings button, adjust the TIF size to 50 mb, click OK

[more info]
Possibly your cache folder is corrupt:

[WinME]
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/delcache.htm#WinME
_______________________________________
Mike Burgess http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/
Blocking Spyware, Adware, Parasites, Hijackers, Trojans, with a HOSTS file
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I've a friend who has been having troubles with his Internet Explorer
Cookies for several months (IE6 SP1 on Windows Me, recently updated with
IE6 SP1 Cumulative Service Patch for August 2003).

Some websites accept his cookies but others don't and won't set a new
cookie (session or persistent). I've turned off all IE6 settings (and any
firewall and antivirus settings) that might have an impact keeping his
cookies from being accepted but the problem continues. These problem sites
previously wrote and accepted his cookies just fine. So I think he has a
corrupted cookie cache, if you will.

I've cleared out his Temporary Internet Files folder, History and Cookies
folder. I booted in SafeMode and deleted the index.dat files in the
Temporary Internet Files and History folders. However I wasn't able to
delete the index.dat in the Cookies folder as Windows reported it was in
use (no programs were running in SafeMode except Windows Explorer [not
Internet Explorer], so I assume Windows Explorer had that index.dat file
open).

I searched the web and found/installed/ran a program called Tweak IE 3.1
which is supposed to kill the index.bat file(s) during a reboot. But I
still see the index.dat file there with a 208KB size! (I then removed
TweakIE as my friend does indeed want all his persistent cookies to remain
on this particular machine and does not want to deal with managing
cookies).

I found a program called PurgeIE which supposedly "blanks out" the
index.dat file rather than deleting it. But I'm holding out for a better
solution.

I've searched MS's Support KnowledgeBase and TechNet notes without finding
much if any info on this particular issue. But if you search google on
"index.dat hidden" there are a lot of people with the same issue. Why can't
MS add to their IE Cookie FAQ a list of possible solutions?

In the meantime my friend is having to use Netscape 7.1 to access the sites
that won't work with IE6.

Woody

 

[Woody]

Thanks Mike,

Besides using the DOS method I did everything as you suggested
previously.

In my post I stated I cleared the Temp Inet Files (TIF) folder as I
thought it was indeed a corrupt cache file.

My difficulty is with the index.dat in the cookies folder.

The URL you suggested states:

WinME users that need to delete the Temporary Internet Files

Insert your WinMe bootdisk and restart. Select: "Minimal" from the menu
From A:\> (type and press Enter after each command)

C:
cd\windows
smartdrv
deltree tempor~1
deltree history
deltree temp

Remove the bootdisk and restart (Ctrl-Alt-Del)


Note the method doesn't refer to anything regarding the Cookies folder or
the index.dat in that folder? I'm confused as to why not.

Also any specific reason for the recommending 50MB as the TIF setting?
Isn't that a function of the percentage size of the hard drive. Or is it
best to keep at a smaller size (50MB) no matter the size of hard drive?

No DOS mode with Win Me so I guess I'll need to boot via a DOS floppy to
try to delete the cookies/index.dat.

Woody