TGIF Cookies Cookies Cookies....TIPs

Have you ever arrived on a Web Page, and it already has information about you, like your user name or maybe the weather for your home town? It's very likely that this Web Site has saved information about you from your last visit. This information is on your local PC in a file called a Cookie. Only the information that you provided, or the choices you made while visiting this Web site, are stored in this Cookie. For example, the site cannot determine your e-mail name unless you choose to type it. Cookies have gotten some bad press with stories about some companies using them for purposes not intended, but I've not personally seen any reason to be concerned. But it is interesting how they work.

I've used Microsoft's Internet Explorer screen captures on this page, and have circled key topics and menu elements in Blue. To change your settings for controlling Cookies... Click on the Internet Explorer Tools menu and select Internet Options.
	You should now see the Internet Options window. Click on the tab "Security" and you should see a window, like the screen image to the left. Your Web Browser allows you to specify different settings for different circumstances, such as when working on your local network, visiting a site you've chosen to trust, or during your normal activity on the Internet. This screen shows my Internet settings. The slide bar offers suggested settings for generic levels of security. To better define your settings, click on the Custom Level... button.

	There are lots and lots of control settings here, but for now, use the arrows to scroll down to "Cookies". You can control how your browser deals with "Permanent" Cookies stored on your PC, and how it deals with temporary "per-session" Cookies, used only during a visit. If you disable either of these, some web sites may not work properly. I personally don't concern myself with "per-session" Cookies, but do occasionally change the setting for Stored cookies to Prompt. Selecting "Prompt" will cause your browser to "ask" before creating a Cookie and allows you to see when a Web Site is saving information to your PC. I don't leave this on all the time, as it slows me down too much, but it is interesting to see.

You should see a list of files, which are the Cookies stored on your PC. If you surf the web as much as I do, this will be a very long list!

Cookies, Cookies, Cookies