StarDestroyer.Net BBS

While using Spybot S&D (my brother still uses IE) i noticed that some of them mentioned Cookies. I've heard cookies mentioned before but don't know what they are or what they do. Since the spyware seem to be associated with them is deleting a whole folder full of them a good idea?

They hold temporay page files, if you delete them, they usally appear again when you go the page they originated from. but there are options to get rid of them, click on tools, internet options, privacy etc...

In some cases it can be a good thing, but if you go to websites and use saved passwords alot so you don't have to enter them frequently, i would recommend sifting through the cookies to see which ones you recognize as friendly and which ones aren't. Otherwise, it won't hurt yer computer to get rid of them. Don't delete the folder though, as having cookies enabled (and thus the folder being present) is somewhat necessary for some sites.

Cookies have legitamite uses- I use cookies on my site to allow a theme to be applied to the entire site and stay that way.

The worst thing that can happen if you clean your Cookie folder is that you have to re-enter many of your passwords (they'll get saved again as Cookies if you want'em), and it would be bad luck if you forgot one or too (then again, you can always click on "I lost my password" in a lot of sites).

Always make sure '1st psrty cookies' is set to accept and '3rd party cookies' is set to block. 1st parties are the site you're at, and 3rd parties are invariably advertisers using the cookies as 'pseudo-spyware'.