Thanks, Anita

Dear Anita,

I can tell you where to look for the deleted cookies, but really it depends on what method was used to delete them.

The only place you can look for your cookies, is the Recycle Bin. If they are in the recycle bin, you can restore them back to their original location.

1. Double click on the recycle bin on your desktop to open it.

2. Locate the cookie you want to restore and click once on it.

3. In the toolbar at the top of the window, click “Restore this item” to restore the cookie back to its original location.

If your cookies are not in the recycle bin, then they are probably gone for good.

You can look in any programs you have installed that clean out your computer. Some of these programs store a history of changes and allow you to undo them.

I hope this helps, Elizabeth

Thank you, Rose in Ohio

Dear Rose,

In Vista the cookies are grouped together with the Temporary Internet Files. Here is how you can both view them, and delete them:

1. Open Internet Explorer. Click on the “Tools” button, then click on “Internet Options”. If you can’t easily locate the tools button, press the “Alt” key on your keyboard and the menu bar will appear with “tools” in the menu.

2. In the Internet Options window, make sure you have the “General” tab selected, and look at the section entitled “Browsing history”.

3. In the Browsing history section, click on the “Settings” button and in the window that appears, click on the “View Files” button. This will open a window where you can view both your cookies and other temporary files. Close that window when you are done looking at your files.

4. Close the “Temporary Internet Files and History Settings window, to go back to the Internet Options window.

5. Once back in the Internet Options window, look once again at the “Browsing History” section and this time click on the “Delete…” button. This will open the “Delete Browsing History” window.

6. In the Delete Browsing History window, click on the “Delete Cookies” button to clean out all your cookies.

Elizabeth

Dear Computer Lady,

Based on your recommendation, I installed AVG a couple of years ago. I read in the latest Consumers’ Reports issue the only reference to AVG is that the free version is as effective as the lowest rated on its list. Nowhere else was AVG listed.

I expected to see it up at the top of the list. What are your thoughts on this? I do know that I had a number of “dangerous” cookies/spyware etc on my computer that I had to remove. I had believed that AVG would have blocked them.

Joann

Dear Joann,

Thank you for your question, I have not looked at consumer reports and don’t know what they base their ratings on. I can, however, tell you what I have observed over the past 10 years of running AVG on my computer, and removing viruses from hundreds of computers. 

You don’t mention what version of AVG you are using, the free version does not provide quite as much coverage as the professional version, and the Internet Security version provides the most coverage of all. 

Of all the computers that come into my shop infected with viruses, most of them were running some version of Norton when they got infected. I know that this is due partly to the fact that Norton comes on almost all new computers, and many people don’t realize that if they fail to purchase a license their computer is not protected against the new viruses, but I also see a large number of infected computers that had Norton running and up to date.

In that same period of time, I can count on one hand the number of infected computers that were running AVG when they got infected with a virus, and I can only think of one that was infected while running an updated version of AVG. In addition to that, I have been running AVG professional on my computers since they came out with it, and have never been infected with a virus.

As far as cookies and spyware goes, I don’t know of any cookie that would be considered dangerous. Cookies are simply text files that a website can leave on your computer, and retrieve when you return to that site. Cookies are not spyware. A cookie can only contain information that you submit to that site, and can’t be accessed by any other site that you visit. I know that lots of people get all upset about cookies, but I believe that their fears are unfounded.

In addition to AVG, I also run two free spyware prevention programs on my computer, and install them on customers computers. Those two programs are, “Spybot Search & Destroy” and Spyware Blaster. If you keep these programs updated and immunized, they will prevent most spyware from getting into your computer.

Based on my experience, AVG is at the very top of my list.

Elizabeth

When you come to call, [via e-mail] I’m always there to greet ya with a smile!

How do I totally delete installed programs such as credit card account info. on accounts that I’d make payments on-line? They’re not on my ‘add/remove’ programs list.

Regards, Rosetta

Dear Rosetta,

When you enter your credit card information on a website to make payments online, you are not installing the information as a program, you are using your web browser program. If you want to make sure the information that you entered is not still on your computer, you just need to clean out your web browser.

If you are using Internet Explorer 7, just follow these directions.

1. Open Internet Explorer and click on “Tools” and then “Internet Options”.

2. In the Internet Options window, make sure the “General” tab is selected.

3. On the General page, locate the “Browsing History” section and click on the “Delete…” button

4. A “Delete Browsing History” window will open. 

5. Click the “Delete files…” button for Temporary Internet Files and click “Yes” in the window that asks if you are sure you want to. Wait until the process is finished.

6. Click the “Delete forms…” button I the Form data section, click “Yes” and when the data has been deleted, you can close all the windows.

If you are using Google Chrome…

1. Open Chrome and click on the wrench icon in the upper right hand corner.

2. Click on “Clear Browsing Data” in the drop down menu.

3. Make sure there is a check mark in front of Empty the cache.

4. Click on the drop down list next to, “Clear data from this period:”

5. Click the “Clear Browsing Data” at the bottom of the window.

6. When everything has been cleaned, the window will automatically close.

If you are using Netscape…

1. Open Netscape and in the menu bar, click on “Tools” and “Clear Private Data”.

2. Make sure there is a check mark in front of “Saved form and search history”

3. Make sure there is a check mark in front of “Cache”.

4. Click the “Clear Private Data Now” button.

5. When everything has been cleaned, the window will automatically close.

I don’t have an account with AOL, so I couldn’t tell you how to do this in AOL. If any readers have AOL and would like to share the steps, feel free to leave a comment  with the  directions below.

Thanks, Elizabeth

Dear Computer Lady,

Love your newsletter. Please, just what are cookies, and should I delete them?? If so, how does one delete them? 

Thank you for your help, Carole

Dear Carole,

Cookies on your computer are nothing more than small text files.

You can actually get rid of all the cookies on your computer if you wish. The only thing they do, is hold information about your activities and/or account information with a particular website.

If, for instance you shop at Amazon.com frequently, a cookie from their website identifies you and Amazon.com will include your name and items you might be interested in when you visit their website.

If you delete your Amazon.com cookie, the website will show you a generic page and you will have to log in using your username and password before you can access your account with them.

To get rid of all your cookies, go to the control panel and open the “Internet Options”.

On the “General” tab, click on the button that says “Delete Cookies”.

If you are using an older version of Internet Explorer, this option is not available, and you will have to go to the C: \Windows\Cookies folder and delete them manually.

Elizabeth 

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This great program will clear out your recently typed URLs, do the same thing for your cookies, and clean out other types of temporary files for you as well. Not only will Smart Windows Cleaner clean out the entries that have been typed in, you can also specify which entries you want it to leave for you.

To use the free trial, download the program using this link:

http://askTCL.com/Files/SmartWindowsCleanerDemo.msi

Save the file to your computer, then double click on it to install the program.

Once the program is installed, read the information screen that appears, it will provide valuable information about running the program.

Once you have read the information, close the help window, and you will see the Smart Windows Cleaner window.

Before you can use the program to clean out entries like your Google search entries, you must configure the program once. To do this, click the button that says “Setup Wizard”.

Read the Setup directions and click “Next”.

On the first page, you will see a list of URLs that you have visited. If there are some that you want to save so you can easily visit them again, click on the URL and then click “Add”. The program will add the URL to its protected list of URLs. Click “Next” when you are done.

Next you come to the list of Cookies on your computer. Do the same as you did with the typed URLs. If there are cookies that save passwords or other login information for you, click on then one at a time and click “Add” to add that cookie to the list of files you want to keep. When you are finished, click “Next”.

The next few sections are for your recent documents, media files, documents, and the location of the Windows Temp files. You can also password protect the program, and set it to run every time Windows starts if you want. If you don’t want to save anything, or don’t know what you are supposed to do, just click “Next” in each screen until you get to the last screen where you the “Next” button now says “Finish”. Click on the “Finish” button and you will now be able to clean out your files by clicking the “Clean Now” button.

Before you click “Clean Now” be sure that “Run/Search history” has a check mark in front of it, since it is your search history that you want to remove.

Elizabeth