# how do I delete cookies?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-delete-cookies/120839>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 25, 2002, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-delete-cookies/120839 "2002-07-25T23:05:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecd19e/32.png) [@Jojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jojo)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-delete-cookies/120839/1 "2002-07-25T23:05:04Z")

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I’m trying to clear space by deleting unwanted files etc. I can delete some cookies by doing:

Tools - Internet Options - Delete Files

but this doesn’t seem to delete all cookies, just some. I could right click on each one and delete them all one by one but this is time consuming. Is there a way of deleting them all in one go?

Also, when I delete a cookie, is it removed entirely from my computer or is it moved to some kind of “cookie recycle bin” somewhere? Do I have to go and delete them from there as well?

Oh I’m using IE5.

Thanks for any help.

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**Author:** ![Fatman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d2c977/32.png) [@Fatman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fatman)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-delete-cookies/120839/2 "2002-07-25T23:29:29Z")

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Most of your IE cookies are in C:\Windows\cookies

Just open the folder and delete what you don’t want.  
You can even do control A and delete all. But maybe  
you want to keep a few. Some store your password  
to certain sites (like this one).

There are other cookies locations on your computer.  
Real Player stores cookies separate from your browser.  
If you use other browsers, there are special places for  
those cookies as well.

Cookies also store information like what stocks you want  
to appear on your homepage and what pages you have visited.  
At:  
C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files\content.IE5  
You will find many more cookie files. These will disappear soon.  
A lot of cookie files will disappear automatically. They are set to  
expire after a time. Sometimes 20 minutes, sometimes a year.

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**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-delete-cookies/120839/3 "2002-07-25T23:36:55Z")

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Edit -\> Select All

File -\> Delete

Do you want to send all cookies to the trash bin? -\> Yes