# where are cookies in IE? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 24, 2013, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-cookies-in-ie/648255 "2013-01-24T20:26:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-cookies-in-ie/648255/1 "2013-01-24T20:26:10Z")
I’m constantly getting logged out, not only from the SD but from a variety of websites, so I suspect that my cookies have been disabled. How to find “enable cookies”? I’m in IE, and my IT guy goes, “Oh, use Firefox.” But I have loads of favorites in IE and I’d like to restore the cookies there. Where is the thingie? ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-cookies-in-ie/648255/2 "2013-01-24T21:33:34Z")
IE Tools \> options \> Privacy. You can set the cookie blocking there. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-cookies-in-ie/648255/3 "2013-01-24T23:29:47Z")
Way back when, when the internet first took off cookies were one of its first big privacy scares (seems quaint now). All they are are small text files containing a little data regarding preferences you set on a website (not stuff like passwords though) and, more often, they’re traces of your browsing/shopping history which other websites use to tailor the ads they show you towards products you were looking at. If you’re really paranoid (or browsing at work) you can clear your browsing data (including cookies if you want) by hitting CTRL + SHIFT + DEL (note that that’s SHIFT, _ **not** _ ALT!) while your browser is open. IE & Firefox will give you a list of check boxes showing what it will delete and you can check & uncheck what you want (browsing history, active logins (like the SD), website preferences, temp files, cookies etc.) It’s not a bad idea to delete temp files as these can really build up over time, and history is all the sites you’ve been to (porn possibly? :)) but I always leave website preferences, logins, and cookies unchecked and have never had a problem. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-cookies-in-ie/648255/4 "2013-01-25T20:34:46Z")
hmm–didn’t work. Ya think I can just turn cookies off altogether? I notice that it’s set to medium on my work computer, and I have no problem staying logged in here, but on my laptop, I also have it set to medium, and I’m getting logged out of everything in a half-hour, tops. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-cookies-in-ie/648255/5 "2013-01-25T20:39:02Z")
What version of IE do you use? ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-cookies-in-ie/648255/6 "2013-01-25T21:03:29Z")
when you install Firefox you can tell it to automatically go get your IE favorites, it then uses them as what it calls bookmarks. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2013, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-cookies-in-ie/648255/7 "2013-01-28T05:51:49Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > hmm–didn’t work. Ya think I can just turn cookies off altogether? I notice that it’s set to medium on my work computer, and I have no problem staying logged in here, but on my laptop, I also have it set to medium, and I’m getting logged out of everything in a half-hour, tops. In Internet Explorer go to Tools \> Internet Options \> click on the Privacy tab \> then move the slider all the way to the top (Maximum) to not accept cookies at all. **However** , I don’t see how that’s going to do anything but make your PC \*more \*likely to not remember logins…