Each browser you use to get online uses its own folder to keep cookies that websites may want to put on your computer. Modern browsers keep these folders under tight lock and key, preventing anything in them from accessing anything else on the computer. As a result, getting a virus from a cookie, which was a serious problem 5 years ago, is no longer a major security threat. Nonetheless, you may not like the idea of websites tracking your coming and going. Here is how to remove those cookies from the major browsers.
Internet Explorer
In the upper right hand corner of your Internet Explorer window you will see a small picture of a gear. Click on this gear to get a drop down menu to appear. Click on ‘Internet Options’. This window has a few options on it. The second one on the list says ‘Browsing History’ and it has a button right below it that says ‘Delete’. Click on this button and it will remove all cookies from your computer. This also removes the listing of websites you’ve been to before, so after you click it you will need to type in any website you want to go to (as opposed to it appearing in a drop down box as you type the site in).
Firefox
In the bar across the top, you will see a menu called ‘Tools’. Click on this menu, and go to ‘Clear Recent History…’. There is a small list of things you can clear in the box that opens up. ‘Cookies’ is the third item on the list. Click on that, and uncheck the other boxes if you don’t want to lose your history of sites you’ve visited. When you hit okay, your cookies are gone.
Google Chrome
In the upper right hand corner of your window you will see the picture of a small wrench. Click on it, and click on ‘Options’ in the drop down box. A new window will appear. In the top left is a list of three choices. Click on ‘Under The Hood’. The very first row on this new screen has a button that says ‘Clear Browsing Data…’. Click on it, and tell it to ‘Delete cookies and other site data’.
Apple Safari
Much like Internet Explorer, there is a gear in the top right corner. Click on it, and look for the option that says ‘Reset Safari…’ It pulls up a list of things to delete, cookies being one of them. Click on one or all of them and click okay. You’re clear!
Again, cookies are not the security threat that they used to be, but if you don’t want websites to remember you when you go back to them, getting rid of cookies is the way to do it.
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