Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
Cookies can be used to save your password, or your logged in state, when you visit some web sites. I'll walk through clearing them.
My computer saves my email password. How can I make it to forget the password. i.e. How can I delete the cookies?
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Most saved passwords are saved as cookies; it's by far the most common approach. Web sites do this to avoid forcing you to re-login for every page you visit, or longer as a convenience if you tell it to "save password".
How you delete cookies depends on your browser. I'll walk you through both Firefox and Internet Explorer 8.
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Internet Explorer 8
Click on the Tools Menu, and then the Internet Options item:
In "Browsing history", click on the Delete... button:
Click on Delete cookies...
Click on Yes, and your cookies have been deleted.
Firefox
Click on the Tools menu, and then the Options menu item:
Click on the Privacy tab:
Click on clear your recent history:
In the "Time range to clear" drop-down, select the period for which you wish to clear cookies (choose "Everything" if you're not sure). Then in the details area uncheck everything except Cookies (though of course you can leave checked any additional items you also want to clear).
Click Clear Now and your cookies have been cleared.
Article C3941 - December 3, 2009 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
December 27, 2009 7:28 PM
Just use CCleaner every night, as I do. All temp internet files, cookies, index dat, thumbnails, temporary files, etc, is wiped away with this method beyond recovery, if you set the program to erase using the Guttman method (35 sweeps). However, cookies are not completely erased by this method. What I'm saying is, they can be retreived by a program such as Recuva, from the same company as CCleaner. You can't fully get rid of cookies no matter how many times you try to erase them. You can delete them, but the only way to fully destroy them is with a reformat and reinstall of your OS. HP actually recommends that you do this once a year, anyway.
January 18, 2010 7:36 AM
There are also third-party tools with integrated schedules that remove cookies, cache and also much more from the different browsers, like IE, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and let the browser work faster. E.g. History Killer Pro removes temp files, favicons, forms history, typed URLs, keyword search terms, thumbnails, etc.
February 28, 2010 5:32 PM
In opera browser, there is also a option to choose which cookies to delete in tools>advanced>cookies. i also sets the option of asking me before accepting any cookies. i always only keep cookies of my frequent or joined sites and deletes the rest.
March 19, 2010 2:42 PM
What about in Google Chrome? (And I don't want to delete all the cookies, just some, one in particular.)
July 4, 2010 7:38 AM
I've followed the procedure to delete cookies but about eight of them stay put and refuse to be deleted. How do I exterminate them? I use IE8. Do I have to buy a program to do this job? If so, why does IE allow people to install cookies which cannot be removed?
04-Jul-2010