How to Delete Cookies from Computer

Internet cookies contain information on the websites you visited while browsing. They store the date you visited the site, number of times you visited the site, your passwords, records of purchases you made online along with other information. All this is stored on your hard drive in the form of text files.

There is a possibility that your computer speed slows down if you have not deleted cookies. At times, certain spyware may infiltrate your computer through cookies. Also, people can understand your browsing history if they know the trick. It is for these reasons you need to erase them from your system.

Deleting Cookies in IE

Step 1
To begin erasing cookies on your computer, click on the 'Start' button. Select 'Control Panel' and from the window that appears, double click on 'Internet Options'.

Step 2
You will find an option called 'Delete Cookies' (in the second row), click on it. In the window that appears, tick mark the box next to cookies, by clicking there. If you want to delete any temporary internet files and history as well, click on respective empty boxes besides these options. Click on the 'Delete' tab at the bottom, and your cookies have disappeared.

Step 3
After deleting them from your desktop computer system, you can adjust settings of your internet explorer, so that it blocks cookies. Double click on the 'Internet Explorer' icon and click on 'Tools' from the menu bar. From the drop down list, select 'Internet Options' and click on the 'Privacy' tab. You can adjust the settings of your browser by moving the scroll bar appearing in the window. Higher you take the scroll bar, stricter the browser behaves with them. Set it as per your needs.

Step 4
Go back and click on the 'Advanced' tab from the 'Internet Options' window. Follow directions appearing in the window and cancel the automatic cookie handling option present there.

Deleting Cookies in Firefox

Step 1
Double click on the 'Firefox' icon for the window to open. When the Firefox browser window opens, select 'Tools' option from the menu bar and click on 'Options'.

Step 2
In the 'Options' window which appears, you will find various icons on the top panel. Select the 'Privacy' icon by clicking on it. From the window that appears, click on 'Remove Individual Cookies'.

Step 3
A new window will appear on screen with a list of cookies. If you want to remove only a single cookie or some particular ones, select them and click on the 'Remove Cookie' tab at the bottom. But if you want to delete all of them from your computer, click on the 'Remove All Cookies' tab at the bottom.

Deleting Cookies in Vista

Step 1
To delete cookies on Windows Vista, double click on the 'Internet Explorer ' icon and select 'Tools' option from the menu bar of the window which opens. From the drop down list, click on 'Delete Browser History' to open its window.

Step 2
You will come across 5 different options - Cookies, Passwords, Temporary Internet Files, Form Data and History, any of which you can delete, by selecting them one at a time. In case you want to delete all of them, simply click on 'Delete All' tab at the bottom. Click 'OK' from the dialog box which pops up, and your job is done.

Step 3
There is another way you can use to erase cookies in Windows Vista. Click on 'Start' and go to 'Control Panel'. Click on 'Network/Internet' and select 'Internet Options'. You find the 'Delete Browser History' option there as well, wherein you can choose 'Delete All' or individually select whatever you wish to remove from your computer.

After learning how to delete the cookies from your computer, you should definitely follow the given instructions and clean your computer from any unwanted cookies which may be hampering its performance.