Impact of Deleting Cookies

[Paul Black]

Hi,

I have had my Computer since November 2001 ( Windows XP Home Edition )
and have accumulated 1,335 Cookies. What would the Impact be if I was
to :-
(1) Delete ALL Cookies or
(2) Delete ALL Cookies Older than a Year
I have Sites that when I go to them Recognise me.
I did Read somewhere that if you Delete ALL your Cookies that it can
Slow Down your Machine, is that True?.
I have my Privacy Set to MEDIUM - Block Third-Party Cookies that use
Personally Identifiable Information Without your Implicit Consent.

Thanks in Advance
Paul

 

[David Candy]

You'll need to remember all your passwords for those sites that have no reason to have passwords. It doesn'tr slow down your machine.

 

[HillBillyBuddhist]

| Hi,
|
| I have had my Computer since November 2001 ( Windows XP Home Edition )
| and have accumulated 1,335 Cookies. What would the Impact be if I was
| to :-
| (1) Delete ALL Cookies or
| (2) Delete ALL Cookies Older than a Year
| I have Sites that when I go to them Recognise me.
| I did Read somewhere that if you Delete ALL your Cookies that it can
| Slow Down your Machine, is that True?.
| I have my Privacy Set to MEDIUM - Block Third-Party Cookies that use
| Personally Identifiable Information Without your Implicit Consent.
|
| Thanks in Advance
| Paul

The only "impact" would be as you have already surmised, sites to which you
log on automatically would no longer recognize you and you would be required
to enter your user name and password again.

No it will not slow down your computer. Cookies are simply small text files.

That you have only 1300ish cookies on a computer you've had for three years
would seem to indicate that either you use your computer *very* little on
the Internet or you have deleted your cookies previously either through disk
cleanup or some other method.

--
D

I'm not an MVP a VIP nor do I have ESP.
I was just trying to help.
Please use your own best judgment before implementing any suggestions or
advice herein.
No warranty is expressed or implied.
Your mileage may vary.
See store for details.

Remove shoes to E-mail.

 

[Alias]

Deleting them and deleting temporary Internet files will speed up your
machine.

Alias

 

[Jim Byrd]

Hi Paul - Others have appropriately answered your original question.
However, FWIW, there are better techniques for handling cookies than what
you're using. As I state below, I've used the following since IE6 first
came out, and I currently have 78 cookies stored and at a guess have deleted
manually about 15 - 20 over the years.


With regards to cookies: Courtesy of Mel's Spyware Tools, here:
http://homepage.cooketech.net/~cybermel/Mel's Spyware Tools and Ad Blockers.html

XML-Menu for IE6 - (https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ehowes/www/main.htm, click on
IE6 Tools on website) "This package contains a full menu of custom Import
XML files that can be used to manipulate IE6's handling of cookies in the
Internet and Trusted zones (the Privacy tab controls only the Internet
zone). The files are divided into three sets: one "short list" of
recommended files, and two "advanced" lists containing a wide range of
possible Privacy configurations. The ReadMe covers the basics of using
custom XML Import files and details all the files that are available. A
..REG file that can be used to restore the default Privacy tab settings is
included."

This is the technique that I use and, while I do very infrequently have to
override on some sites that don't have a Privacy Policy in place, I've found
it almost infallible in stopping bad cookies (I use 1-e, BTW) FWIW, Eric
Howes site, above, is one of the very best on the net with regard to
anything having to do with security. Very Highly Recommended.


--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In

 

[Jan Hyde]

(e-mail address removed) (Paul Black)'s wild thoughts were
released on 23 Aug 2004 02:53:44 -0700 bearing the following
fruit:

Hi,

I have had my Computer since November 2001 ( Windows XP Home Edition )
and have accumulated 1,335 Cookies. What would the Impact be if I was
to :-
(1) Delete ALL Cookies or
(2) Delete ALL Cookies Older than a Year
I have Sites that when I go to them Recognise me.
I did Read somewhere that if you Delete ALL your Cookies that it can
Slow Down your Machine, is that True?.
I have my Privacy Set to MEDIUM - Block Third-Party Cookies that use
Personally Identifiable Information Without your Implicit Consent.

To add to the other comments, I clear all my cookies about
once a week. Other than the auto login to some websites
issue already mentioned I've had no problems.

On the other hand, I never to on my work PC and there are
thousands. Again I've not had any problems.





Jan Hyde (VB MVP)