cookie and IE related questions

fernando · Wed 02 Jun, 2004 19.52

hello everyone,

Can you possibly help me with the following? I'm using IE6 and XP.

As background for you on the 'cookie' issue, my IE is currently set to default settings in the 4 internet security zones. I also have 'custom' selected in Privacy, set as follows:

Prompt for first party cookies;
Block third party cookies;
'Always allow session ccokies' not selected, but I have never worked out what this actually means;
'Over-ride automatic cookie handling' turned on, and I have forced certain sites such as Yahoo to always allow cookies.

1) Does setting IE as 'empty temporary internet files when browser closes' also delete possibly useful 'permanent' cookies ?

2) Which IE setting should guarantee ongoing reliability when you tick the 'remember my username and password' box (for eg) on websites ?

3) Is it a separate memory function to the above when XP offers to store such details for you?
If so, how can I 'clear' old or out of date saved details from that facility when you see what's still stored when the drop down selection becomes visible?

4) Which IE setting(s) should guarantee that IE and any secondary IE windows open full screen, rather than 'almost' a centred full-screen version of my last manual window size ?

5) What does IE's 'enable automatic image resizing' function mean and do ?

6) What does IE's 'enable page transitions' function mean and do ?

Many thanks for any help with the above.

Pete · Wed 02 Jun, 2004 20.48

5 is when you look at a massive picture IE shrinks it to the size of your window for a preview

6 is a useless tacky feature for swipes between pages that nobody uses unless their site is on geocities.

fernando · Thu 03 Jun, 2004 00.17

thanks for that;

hopefully other people can help me out with the other points.

Chris · Thu 03 Jun, 2004 01.24

fernando wrote:hello everyone,

Can you possibly help me with the following? I'm using IE6 and XP.

As background for you on the 'cookie' issue, my IE is currently set to default settings in the 4 internet security zones. I also have 'custom' selected in Privacy, set as follows:

Prompt for first party cookies;
Block third party cookies;
'Always allow session ccokies' not selected, but I have never worked out what this actually means;
'Over-ride automatic cookie handling' turned on, and I have forced certain sites such as Yahoo to always allow cookies.

1) Does setting IE as 'empty temporary internet files when browser closes' also delete possibly useful 'permanent' cookies ?

2) Which IE setting should guarantee ongoing reliability when you tick the 'remember my username and password' box (for eg) on websites ?

3) Is it a separate memory function to the above when XP offers to store such details for you?
If so, how can I 'clear' old or out of date saved details from that facility when you see what's still stored when the drop down selection becomes visible?

4) Which IE setting(s) should guarantee that IE and any secondary IE windows open full screen, rather than 'almost' a centred full-screen version of my last manual window size ?

5) What does IE's 'enable automatic image resizing' function mean and do ?

6) What does IE's 'enable page transitions' function mean and do ?

Many thanks for any help with the above.

1) No. It just empties the cache on your hard disk IIRC.

2) What do you mean by ongoing reliability?

3) As far as I know, the details are stored somewhere in the registry unlike previous versions of Windows 9x which stored it in a password list (pwl) file.

4) On XP it should open up near full-ish screen. At least it always did when I last had XP on this box. It drove me mad as well.

5) Resizes the image if it's too big for your browser window. Another pet hate of IE of mine, especially at college when I can't switch it off. Other pet hates include having "my pictures" on the right click menu and pestering you to save your password everytime when you've just done a fresh reinstall!

6) Switches on fancy page transitions for webpages that support it.

fernando · Thu 03 Jun, 2004 01.56

thanks very much, Chris;

just to expand a little for you -

in 2) by 'ongoing reliability', I mean how can i try to set IE (or XP?) so 'permanent' cookies exist consistently beyond one browser session ?
By 'permanent' cookies, I mean such things as yahoo's 'save my login on this computer'.
I find I currently can't guarantee that such details will be retained, even less from one computer restart to the next.

What does 'always allow session cookies' mean in IE ?

in 3), presumably this register isn't designed for me to find and fiddle with !

thanks again.

Neil Jones · Thu 03 Jun, 2004 10.36

fernando wrote:1) Does setting IE as 'empty temporary internet files when browser closes' also delete possibly useful 'permanent' cookies ?

2) Which IE setting should guarantee ongoing reliability when you tick the 'remember my username and password' box (for eg) on websites ?

3) Is it a separate memory function to the above when XP offers to store such details for you?
If so, how can I 'clear' old or out of date saved details from that facility when you see what's still stored when the drop down selection becomes visible?

4) Which IE setting(s) should guarantee that IE and any secondary IE windows open full screen, rather than 'almost' a centred full-screen version of my last manual window size ?

5) What does IE's 'enable automatic image resizing' function mean and do ?

6) What does IE's 'enable page transitions' function mean and do ?

1) No. There is a Delete Cookies button next to the Delete Files option which removes cookies.

2) These are cookie features, cookies expire so many months down the line. There is no such thing to my mind of a very permanent cookie - see below.

3) Autocomplete: Tools --> Internet Options --> Content --> Autocomplete.

4) There isn't one; make a new shortcut to iexplore.exe in C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer and change the properties of the shortcut instead. This will not affect when you or a site opens a new browser window which will indeed take account of the last window position.

5) Shrinks images that are too big for the browser window to a size where it can all be seen in the window.

6) Page transitions are those fancy wipes and dissolving effects that you see in PowerPoint presentations and the like when you change pages. Visual only; switch it off.

fernando wrote:in 2) by 'ongoing reliability', I mean how can i try to set IE (or XP?) so 'permanent' cookies exist consistently beyond one browser session ?
By 'permanent' cookies, I mean such things as yahoo's 'save my login on this computer'.
I find I currently can't guarantee that such details will be retained, even less from one computer restart to the next.

What does 'always allow session cookies' mean in IE ?

in 3), presumably this register isn't designed for me to find and fiddle with !

Session cookies are just that; for that one session only of that window. They are set to expire (delete themselves) when you close all running copies of the web browser.

Permanent cookies also expire but they expire hours, days, weeks and sometimes years into the future. In theory it would be possible for a cookie to hang around literally forever; however in reality it'll almost always be trashed for one reason or another at some point long before its due to expire.

The registry is a crucial part of your Windows installation. Windows will not work without it. It is essentially a huge database of your computer hardware and software and your configuration settings for your programs. Fortunately you can't mess with it accidentally, there is a program that will do it installed with Windows but not linked to anywhere on the Start Menu by default.

fernando · Thu 03 Jun, 2004 22.46

thanks very much Neil, for taking the time to answer so fully there.