Where are all the different locations cookies might be stored?

newbie~wan · January 7th, 2002, 10:35 PM

Does anyone know all the possible locations cookies might be stored?

I know of X:\documents and settings\me\local settings\tif
and X:\documents and settings\me\cookies

Are there any other places cookies might reside? Can websites place them anywhere they want or do they have to go into these two folders?

capybara · January 7th, 2002, 10:44 PM

internet.tmp is another one, and
there are more ......

ben-the-slacker · January 7th, 2002, 10:50 PM

All(I think...) of my cookies are stored in C:\Windows\TempInternetFiles
but they can also be stored in
C:\Windows\Cookies

rlpos · January 7th, 2002, 10:55 PM

I keep my Oreoles in the kitchen, My Fig Newtons in the living room and my Keebler Fudge's by the bed

Tomteriffic · January 7th, 2002, 11:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ben-the-slacker
All(I think...) of my cookies are stored in C:\Windows\TempInternetFiles
but they can also be stored in
C:\Windows\Cookies

Windows is sneaky that way, the two folders here actually store dupes as often as not. Empty one folder and the other still has them.... Grrr.

newbie~wan · January 8th, 2002, 01:05 PM

So are these the only two folders then? I supposed IE determines where the file is to be stored, not the web page right? Well, I guess it would have to be that way. How would a site know what people's file system setup was like. Other than the fact that 99.9% of the population uses the MS default, so that would be a very safe guess for them.

I am just trying to figure out a way to manage my cookies since completely disabling them is not an option for many sites now.

BTW, does anyone know if active scripting is safe yet? I remember hearing it wasnt a while ago, but that a patch has come out. I've kept up with the most recent updates, I just dont know what was in them.

newbie~wan · January 9th, 2002, 11:50 AM

Another question:
index.dat

What is it and why wont it let me delete it? It says there has been a sharing violation. I think I did have IE open at the time. I also remember someone saying that when they nuked index.dat, they had trouble.

Anyone else tried this or know what this file is all about?

January 9th, 2002, 12:59 PM

\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5

In w2k and XP it should be \documents and settings\me\local settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5

Use WIndows Washer to clean them up.

800XL · January 9th, 2002, 03:31 PM

If you are logged in at all (even if IE is closed) index.dat and two content.ie5 files are in use. To manually clean things, login as admin (or another account with admin privs) and you can delete tif, history, and etc for your account. Welcome to browser integration with the OS, so long as you have your desktop up, IE is somewhat active.

I periodically nuke the whole tif directory for my profile, along with the history folder. They get recreated on my next login and I've not seen any troubles, yet. As long as I leave the cookies I want to keep in /cookies under my profile I don't loose settings for various sites. I'm running 2k, so XP *should* work similarly, but your mileage may vary.

index.dat in the cookies directory appears to be some kind of cache file for cookies and the URL associated with them. I haven't deleted it myself, but I imagine that it could cause some problems. If you do try deleting it, save a copy first. Depending on what changes if it is gone or gets recreated, even that may not be enough. Worst case I imagine would be the loss of all cookies you have.

newbie~wan · January 10th, 2002, 12:14 PM

So that's the problem. Now I know what they mean by browser/OS integration. Thanx 800XL.