Technology in terms you understand. Sign up for the Confident Computing newsletter for weekly solutions to make your life easier. Click here and get The Ask Leo! Guide to Staying Safe on the Internet — FREE Edition as my thank you for subscribing!

How do I delete cookies?

Question:

My computer saves my email password. How can I make it to forget the
password. i.e. How can I delete the cookies?

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.

]]>

Internet Explorer 8

Click on the Tools Menu, and then the Internet Options item:

Internet Explorer Internet Options dialog highlighting the Browsing History options

In "Browsing history", click on the Delete... button:

Internet Explorer Internet Options Delete Browsing History, highlighting Cookies

Click on Delete cookies...

Internet Explorer Delete Cookies confirmation

Click on Yes, and your cookies have been deleted.

Firefox

Click on the Tools menu, and then the Options menu item:

Firefox Options dialog, highlighting the Privacy tab

Click on the Privacy tab:

Firefox Options dialog Privacy tab, highlighting the clear recent history link

Click on clear your recent history:

Firefox's Clear Recent History dialog

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.

Do this

Subscribe to Confident Computing! Less frustration and more confidence, solutions, answers, and tips in your inbox every week.

I'll see you there!

14 comments on “How do I delete cookies?”

  1. Don’t forget about the ‘Index.dat’ files that also store cookies. These are not deleted by the above methods. CCleaner will get them.

    Reply
  2. The easiest is to type SHELL:COOKIES into the Start/search field and hit Enter. That brings up the cookie folder (in vista and Win7). For tracking cookies run SuperAntiSpyware.

    Reply
  3. I much prefer to allow cookies, but keep them only until I close the browser. Both Firefox and Opera (which I prefer) allow you to specify exceptions. I let the browser take care of (most) passwords and never, ever tick “Remember me on this site”, not even sites, e.g. Amazon, that I visit quite frequently.

    Reply
  4. For people like myself who prefer the Opera browser – Click on Tools – Delete Private Data – click on “Detailed Options” and make sure “Delete all cookies” option is checked and then then just click on the “Delete” button towards the bottom.

    And for those comments concerned with “flash cookies” and “index.dat” files CCleaner is recommended – http://www.ccleaner.com/

    http://hitanykey.webs.com/

    Reply
  5. 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.

    Reply
  6. 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.

    Reply
  7. 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.

    Reply
  8. 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?

    It really depends on the specific cookies you’re talking about. Perhaps they’re just coming back quickly?

    Leo
    04-Jul-2010

    Reply

Leave a reply:

Before commenting please:

  • Read the article.
  • Comment on the article.
  • No personal information.
  • No spam.

Comments violating those rules will be removed. Comments that don't add value will be removed, including off-topic or content-free comments, or comments that look even a little bit like spam. All comments containing links and certain keywords will be moderated before publication.

I want comments to be valuable for everyone, including those who come later and take the time to read.