Delete Cookies and Temporary Files

Cookies are small text files that web sites put on your hard disk to personalize the site for you or to track and then record your activities on the site. Cookies have gotten a lot of press—most of it bad—but the truth is, not all cookie use is bad. As a means of site customization, they're a great way of helping you get the most out of the Web. They can also carry information about log-in names and passwords, which is a time-saver, since you won't have to log into each site every time you visit. If you delete all your cookies, you won't automatically get your Amazon wish list the next time you visit their site.

But cookies can also be used to track your online activities and identify you. Information about you, based on what cookies gather, can be put in a database, and profiles of you and your surfing habits can be created.

Because cookies can be privacy-invaders, XP gives you a number of ways to restrict how web sites place and use cookies on your PC. To understand how to restrict the ways cookies are used on your PC, you first need to understand three cookie-related terms:

First-party cookie

A cookie created by the site you're currently visiting. These cookies are often used by sites to let you log on automatically—without having to type in your username and password—and customize how you use the site. Typically, these kinds of cookies are not invasive.

Third-party cookie

A cookie created by a site other than the one you're currently visiting. Frequently, third-party cookies are used by advertisers or advertising networks. Some people (including me) consider these kinds of cookies invasive.

Compact privacy statement

A publicly posted policy that describes the details of how cookies are used on a site—for example, detailing the purpose of cookies, how they're used, their source, and how long they will stay on your PC. (Some cookies are automatically deleted when you leave a web site, while others stay valid until a specified date.)

To protect your privacy, you also need to know the difference between implicit consent and explicit consent. Explicit consent means that you have specifically told a site that it can use personally identifiable information about you. It's the same as opting in. Implicit consent means that you haven't specifically told a site not to use personally identifiable information. It's the same as not having opted out, or specifically requesting to be taken off a list.

Internet Explorer lets you customize how it handles cookies. You can choose from six levels of privacy settings, from Accept All Cookies to Block All Cookies. When choosing, keep in mind that some sites won't function well or at all at the higher privacy settings, particularly if you choose to reject all cookies. I generally find that Medium High is a good compromise between protecting privacy and still being able to personalize web sites.

To customize your cookie settings in Internet Explorer, choose Tools > Internet Options > Privacy. Move the slider to your desired level.

Oh..I forget to talk about Temporary files, these are those files which store in your system when you surf the web. And fastly load those website files from the cache, those are not change from the last time you visit the page. But if you clear the cache through any Third Party Software or through IE Windows > Options then you will not load the site as fast as possible. Then you will ask why we use any software, when cleaning possible through IE and why need to delete the files?

The answer is simple, when the files not deleted from long time then the webpages start loading slowly and may be IE also crashed, loading of webpages is mostly noticeable to dial-up users. So, delete the files atleast weekly. And you require a software because there are many different types of temporary files and collect in different locations, and if you done something wrong through your system like hacking any site or surfing adult content and you want that nobody knows about that so best way to delete those, use any good software. I like to mention that if you have done any illegal stuff then no one can save you but cleaning through these software little reduce your chances of caughting. And the best software i think for deleting cookies, temporary files and remove traces of illegal stuff is http://www.webroot.com because this also supports overwrite cleaning called Bleach.