Question About Cookies

L

larryB

This probably isn't an HTML question but I don't find any Usenet groups with
"cookie" in the name except "alt.cookies.yum.yum.yum" and
"alt.sex.bestiality.cookie-monster". I don't think either one of those is
what I'm looking for. Maybe someone here can answer this. Any help
appreciated.

On my machine, Windows XP Prof, there are two subfolders containing cookies,
or pointers to cookies.

"C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Cookies"
* Contains 2,919 cookies. These are the actual text files written to disk.
They have "Size" and "Date Created" attributes.
and...
"C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files"
* Contains numerous .GIF, .JPG, .JS, .CSS, etc. files -- which is what I
understand is supposed to be in this folder.

* But it also contains 813 of what look like pointers or shortcuts back to
the Cookies folder. When I delete Temporary Internet Files from the browser
Tools menu, it clears out everything except these pointers. Also - at a DOS
prompt I have to use a "/s" subdirectory switch with the "dir" command to
list them - which looks to me like DOS sees them as pointers instead of
physical files.

I've copied the "cookies" in both folders to temp folders on my desktop and
compared matching pairs. They're identical -- but that's because I'm
probably just copying the same file a second time when I "copy" the pointer.

An example pair...
#1 - C:\Documents and
Settings\Administrator\Cookies\[email protected]
and
#2 - C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temporary
Internet Files\cookie:[email protected]

....contain identical data. But if I delete #1, #2 doesn't go away
automatically. I have to delete it also.


Questions:
Why are pointers to "Cookies" written to "Temporary Internet Files"?

Why are there only 813 pointers instead of all to all 2,919?

Why would a pointer remain if the physical file is deleted?

Is this behavior browser specific? (I'm using IE7.)


Thanks for any insight into what's going on. I've googled this and come up
with nothing. I'm lost.

larryB
 
J

Jonathan N. Little

larryB said:
This probably isn't an HTML question but I don't find any Usenet groups with
"cookie" in the name except "alt.cookies.yum.yum.yum" and
"alt.sex.bestiality.cookie-monster". I don't think either one of those is
what I'm looking for. Maybe someone here can answer this. Any help
appreciated.

On my machine, Windows XP Prof, there are two subfolders containing cookies,
or pointers to cookies.

"C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Cookies"
* Contains 2,919 cookies. These are the actual text files written to disk.
They have "Size" and "Date Created" attributes.
and...
"C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files"
* Contains numerous .GIF, .JPG, .JS, .CSS, etc. files -- which is what I
understand is supposed to be in this folder.

<snip>

Your question isn't really a general cookie question, but an *Internet
Explorer* specific question. Other browser's handle cookies very
differently. My SeaMonkey has a single cookies.txt file! Try maybe:

microsoft.public.internetexplorer
 
J

J.O. Aho

larryB said:
This probably isn't an HTML question but I don't find any Usenet groups with
"cookie" in the name except "alt.cookies.yum.yum.yum" and
"alt.sex.bestiality.cookie-monster". I don't think either one of those is
what I'm looking for. Maybe someone here can answer this. Any help
appreciated.

No, you are right in that point, but the question had been relevant on almost
any of the microsoft newsgroups.
 
L

larryB

Jonathan N. Little said:
<snip>

Your question isn't really a general cookie question, but an *Internet
Explorer* specific question. Other browser's handle cookies very
differently. My SeaMonkey has a single cookies.txt file! Try maybe:

microsoft.public.internetexplorer


Thanks. I'll post in some of the microsoft groups.

Cheers,
larryB
 
L

larryB

J.O. Aho said:
No, you are right in that point, but the question had been relevant on
almost any of the microsoft newsgroups.

Thanks. I'll post in some of the microsoft groups.

Cheers,
larryB
 

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