Specifying How Your Browser Should Handle Cookies

You can specify how cookies should be handled by setting your cookie preferences and by using the Cookie Manager.

To change your cookie preferences:

1. Open the Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Privacy & Security category, choose Cookies. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click the category to expand the list.)
3. Click one of the radio buttons:
• Disable cookies: Choose this to refuse all cookies.
• Enable cookies for the originating web site only: Choose this if you don't want to accept or return Foreign cookies. Cookies received through email (when the message contains a web page) are treated as foreign cookies.
• Enable all cookies: Choose this to permit all web sites to set cookies on your computer and receive them back during subsequent visits. Note: If you select this option, and later choose to reject all cookies, you may still have some older cookies stored on your computer (though no new ones will be set).
4. If you want to be notified when a web site tries to set a cookie, select "Warn me before storing a cookie."

Managing Cookies Site-By-Site

To control cookies on a site-by-site basis:

1. Open the Tasks menu, choose Privacy & Security, and then choose Cookie Manager.
2. Choose "Unblock Cookies from this Site" or "Block Cookies from this Site."

When you are warned (while browsing) that a web site is requesting to set a cookie, you can click Yes to allow or No to deny the cookie. You can also select the option for your browser to "Remember this decision."

If you select "Remember this decision," you will not be warned the next time that site tries to set or modify a cookie, and your "yes" or "no" response will still be in effect.

If you wish to change a remembered response later, use Cookie Manager to edit your list of automatically stored cookies.

To stop automatically accepting cookies from a site:

1. Open the Tasks menu, choose Privacy & Security, then choose Cookie Manager.
2. Choose View Stored Cookies from the submenu. The Cookie Manager window opens with a list of all the cookies stored on your computer.
3. Click the Cookie Sites tab. The web sites for which you have allowed or denied cookies are listed.
4. Click to select the site from which you no longer want to accept cookies, and then click Remove Cookie. The next time you visit that site, you will be warned if the site attempts to set a cookie.

Viewing Cookies

To view detailed information about cookies:

1. Open the Tasks menu, choose Privacy & Security, and then choose Cookie Manager.
2. Choose View Stored Cookies from the submenu. The Cookie Manager window opens with a list of all the cookies stored on your computer.
3. To see details for a particular cookie, click it. The table below explains the information you see.

Item	Explanation
Name	This is the name assigned to the cookie by its originator.
Information	This string of characters is the information a web site tracks for you. It might contain a user key or name by which you are identified to the web site, information about your interests, and so forth.
Host or Domain	This item tells you whether the cookie is a host cookie or a domain cookie. A host cookie is sent back, during subsequent visits, only to the server that set it. A server is a computer on the Internet. A web site resides on one or more servers. A domain cookie is sent back to any site that's in the same domain as the site that set it. A site's domain is the part of its URL that contains the name of an organization, business, or school---such as netscape.com or washington.org.
Path	This is the file pathway. If a cookie comes from a particular part of a web site, instead of the main page, a path is given.
Server Secure	This indicates whether the cookie was sent over a secure server. If a cookie is secure, it will only be sent over a secure (https) connection. Before sending a secure cookie, your browser checks the connection and will not send if the connection is not secure.
Expires	This is the date and time at which the cookie is deactivated. The browser regularly removes expired cookies from your computer.

Removing Cookies

Important: To remove cookies, follow the steps in this section. Do not try to edit the cookies file on your computer.

To remove one or more cookies from your computer:

1. Open the Tasks menu, choose Privacy & Security, and then choose Cookie Manager.
2. Choose View Stored Cookies from the submenu. The Cookie Manager window opens with a list of all the cookies stored on your computer.
3. Select one or more cookies and click Remove Cookie, or click Remove All Cookies.

You can also choose to prevent the removed cookies from being re-accepted later.