What Are Internet Cookies And How Are They Used - McAfee UNINSTALLER 6.0 User Manual

About Windows 98
The more serious source of junk files is the Internet. When you open a page on
an Internet site, all of the files that are used by that page are downloaded to
your computer and stored in the Internet browser's cache folder. The browser
stores these files in case you return to the same page, so that it can display the
graphics and text immediately instead of downloading them again.
Nevertheless, unless you return often to an Internet page that uses these files,
the cached files are not very useful, and they can take up a lot of disk space.
Graphics files in particular take up a lot of disk space. After you have been
browsing the Internet for a while, you might have several megabytes of disk
space used just by cached files.
These files can be deleted without damaging your system, or even making
your Internet connection run more slowly.
Schedule UnInstaller's QuickClean wizard to get rid of these junk files
regularly, as described in "How do I schedule QuickClean to run at a specific
time?," on page 15.

What are Internet cookies and how are they used?

A cookie is a small file that contains information. The information in the cookie
varies, depending on its purpose. One thing a cookie does not contain is a
program that can be executed on your computer.
For example, when you use an Internet site to buy computer equipment, you
may add items to a "shopping basket." Information about the items you add
to the shopping basket is stored in a cookie on your computer because the
Internet browser cannot retain information that you entered in one Internet
page when you switch to another Internet page. The cookie saves information
about your purchases and allows the site to create a final order form for you.
Another example is the cookie that an electronic version of a newspaper stores
on your computer to keep an encrypted copy of your user name and password
so that you do not need to enter this information each time you connect to the
site.
The newspaper probably also uses the cookie information to record each time
you connect to the site, what pages you use, and whether you click any of the
advertiser's banners. Reputable sites provide privacy information to tell you
how the information that is gathered is used.
These examples of cookies are clearly useful to you, at least in some way.
However, other sites might download cookies just to collect information about
your Internet use. These cookies are clearly not useful to you at all.
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