I’ve been having a lot of problems with my computer lately. The issue seems to be that I’m getting hit with dozens of tracking cookies. It probably wouldn’t be noticeable with a newer system but my PC is old and this is effecting its performance.
I’ve been trying various things to address this. One thing I’d like to do is change the settings on my browser to block all third party cookies. I’ve found instructions on how to do this with IE or Firefox but I can’t find how to do this with Chrome, which is my main browser.
So can anyone tell me how to change the settings on Chrome to block third party tracking cookies?
I had gone this far before and there wasn’t any control for third party cookies.
But I just checked back and saw that I missed there was a button (Content Settings) that opened another sub-menu. And this sub-menu let you block third party cookies.
I’m far from certain. But I have experienced a sudden significant loss of performance so something is going on. I’ve been trying various things to identify and eliminate the problem.
The only thing I’ve found so far is a massive amount of tracking cookies. I’ve never had them before and I’ve never experienced problems like this before. So I suspect a possible connection. Once I stop the flood of cookies, I’ll see if it stops the problem. If not, I’ll keep looking.
Don’t take this personally but downloading and installing unidentified programs at the advice of anonymous online strangers doesn’t seem the best path to avoiding computer problems.
Perhaps you could tell me what it is you’re recommending I install, so I can check it out.
It’s a browser extension called Ghostery, which blocks pretty much all tracking and advertising on the web. As another anonymous online stranger, I’d recommend it. If your computer’s slow, run it instead of adblock.
If you actually looked at the link, you’d have seen that, though. It’s a link to Google Chrome’s secure site, so it’s obviously not malware.
Cookies are nothing but small text files. They can be a privacy concern, but there is really no way they could affect your machine’s general performance. (Except, just possibly, if your hard drive is almost completely full, so they are using up the last of the space needed for swap files etc. Frankly, that is not a likely cause, and the real cure for it, anyway, would be to clear space on the drive, and maybe defrag, rather than to block cookies.)
If your computer is not running well, it is not because of too many cookies. Just about everyone, except extreme privacy fetishists, has a zillion cookies on their computer. It is normal; if you have not seen them before it is because you have not looked… Your performance problem is caused by something else, most likely malware. Run Malwarebytes.
Sorry, you’re right. I should have taken more time to give a description.
It’s a browser add-on called Ghostery, so it’s not some standalone program. It is very well-known and trusted, and all it does is automatically block the vast majority of tracking cookies. That way, you can still take advantage of regular and useful cookies, but block those that serve no purpose but to act as spies that monitor your browsing activities.
Ghostery, combined with AdBlock+ and NoScript are the three must-have browser add-ons, IMO. Although, for most people who are option-adverse, and just want everything in their browser to work without any input from them, I don’t usually recommend NoScript.
That said, if what you’re trying to solve is performance issues, I’d hold off on installing Ghostery until after you’ve got that problem squared away. I’d be glad to help with that as well, if you have any questions.
Correlation ain’t causation. Taking guesses at what your problem might be, and then tracking each one down to prove it isn’t the problem, is not a very productive or efficient diagnostic technique.
Cookies are a few bytes each and are not (by the sheer fact of their existence) going to be causing your performance problem. Pretty much every single person reading this post has thousands of cookies.
Instead of guessing, look at your PC’s performance indicators. CPU usage, disk space free, swap space in use, temperature of CPU and GPU. Run at least 3 malware checkers over your system. Go to Windows Updates and patch, patch, patch, and patch.
What exactly are the problems you’ve been having, what nature of performance degradation are you seeing, and how are you measuring your PC’s performance before and after the onset of this issue?
^^^ And was there a time not too long ago that everything was performing fine, then all of a sudden slowed to a crawl, or was it a slow, gradual degradation? Were there any changes or new software/hardware around this time?