Where have all my Vista Cookies gone?

I’ll wager many Good Booters have heard the Vista Rookie’s Lament: Where have all my Cookies gone? Vista hid them every one.

And be it known, Vista has hidden them and for a very good reason.

Web cookies were introduced as ‘magic cookies’ by UNIX. However it wasn’t until Internet Explorer became the predominant Web browser and Windows renamed ‘magic cookies’ ‘cookies’ storing them in a permanent Cookie folder on a users hard drive did they receive the bad press that made them a source of undeserved universal paranoia.

Cookies have always been subject to a variety of misconceptions, mostly based on the erroneous notion they’re computer programs. When in fact cookies are simply one or two kilobytes of data unable to perform any operation by themselves. They’re neither spyware nor viruses although cookies from certain sites are considered spyware by many anti-spyware products because they allow users to be tracked when visiting various Web sites.

Most modern browsers allow users to decide whether or not to accept cookies. However, arbitrarily rejecting all of them may make some of the features of a web site inaccessible. For example, most shopping carts will not work if cookies are rejected. Furthermore, should your favorite Web site require a logon, if your browser rejects cookies you may have to reenter your logon information each time you log on.

For those who must know where Vista hid their cookies:

1. Click on the “Start” button 

2. At the top of your Start Menu select your “User/Computer” name.

3. Click on “Organize” and select “Folder and search options”.

4. Click the “View” tab and choose “Show hidden files and folders”.

5. Also uncheck “Hide protected operating system files”.

6. When the Confirm panel opens select “Yes” to confirm “OK” to exit. 

7. Now find the folder named “AppData” and click to open the folder. 

8. Inside the AppData folder select “Roaming > Microsoft > Windows”

9. Find your Cookies folder and open it.

You’ll see all the cookies Web sites have placed on your computer. You may also see a “Low” folder. These are cookies from Web sites to which you’ve given low user privileges.

I leave it up to you to decide which cookies to delete - if any. Just please delete judiciously! 

There’s a free utility at www.nirsoft.net. IE Cookie View for XP and Vista will help you identify a cookie if its name doesn’t identify it.

Here’s wishing you a Good Boot.