Cookie Monster 3.22

Help contents

Description
License agreement
The main window
The options window
Usage notes
Credits

1. Description ^

This utility is a manager for cookies created by the most usual Windows browsers: Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Firefox, Netscape and Opera (only basic support for this one). It also works with any Gecko-based browser and most of the browsers based in Internet Explorer. The program allows you set a list of the cookies you want to preserve and then delete the remaining ones with a simple mouse click. It also have the option of detecting the cookies for the sites included in your favorites and/or bookmarks.

Useful for people who cares about his privacy but don't want to disable or block all the cookies (a lot of pages need them to work properly).

See Changes.txt for the changes history.

2. License agreement ^

This software is freeware, but only for PERSONAL AND NON-PROFIT USE. For commercial, corporate, educational or government use, or inclusion in any distribution made for profit (software compilations, CD's...) you must contact the author for authorization.

This software is provided "as is", WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. The author declines responsibility for any damages arising out of the use of this program.

You can redistribute this software for free, as long as you don't charge any money, and only if you use the original package. If you don't have a copy of the original package, you can download it from the AMPsoft web site at http://www.ampsoft.net.

3. The main window ^

The cookie lists

There are two list in the main window. The Available cookies lists shows the cookies stored by the browsers detected in the system (you can change the list of browsers used in the Options).

The Preserved cookies list shows the cookies selected for preservation (they won't be deleted by the program). If some of the cookies preserved in past sessions are not found (e.g. the cookie expired), they will still appear in this list but marked as "not found". In this way, if that cookie is created again by the browser, it will be preserved.

You can double-click in both lists to view the data belonging to the selected cookie (except for Opera which stores cookies in binary format and therefore can't be shown as text).

Depending on the browser and version of Windows used, Cookie Monster will detect different sets of cookies:

In Windows 9x/Me the program usually detects all the cookies at the same time.
In Windows 2000/XP the behaviour vary according to the browser:
- Internet Explorer: The program only detects the cookies of the current Windows user.
- Mozilla/Firefox/Netscape 7: The program detects the cookies in all the profiles of the current Windows user.
- Opera: Opera uses a single cookie file in old versions and a file for the cookies of each Windows user in recent versions (7 and up). Both situations are detected by the program.
- Netscape 4.x: The program detects the cookie files of every profile.
- Other Gecko-based browsers: the program will detect the cookies for all the profiles stored in the folder selected by the user.

Note that session cookies are not saved in any file (since they only exists until the browser is closed), and thus they won't be detected.

The management buttons

The four buttons situated just over the lists are used for moving cookies from one list to another. From left to right they are:

Add selected cookies (green arrow): Move the selected cookies in the Available cookies list to the preserved list.
Add all the cookies (double green arrow): Move all the cookies in the Available cookies list to the preserved list.
Remove all the cookies (double red arrow): Remove all the cookies from the Preserved cookies list. Note that if you remove a cookie showed as "not found" from that list, you can't add it again to the list until the browser create again that cookie.
Remove selected cookies (red arrow): Remove the selected cookies from the Preserved cookies list. Note that if you remove a cookie showed as "not found" from that list, you can't add it again to the list until the browser create again that cookie.

Also, you can drag & drop cookies between both lists (this is activate or deactivate in the Options).

You can select more that one item by clicking and dragging with the mouse (if drag & drop between lists isn't enabled), or by pressing the shift and control keys while you select the cookies: using shift will select blocks of items while control allows selecting items individually.

Due to differences in the method used by each browser for saving the cookies, Cookies are managed in a different way depending on the browser:

Internet Explorer: The program will manage all the cookies for each web site at the same time.
Mozilla/Firefox/Netscape/Gecko-based browsers: The program will manage each single cookie individually.
Opera: The program will manage all the cookies at the same times.

The toolbar

The toolbar of the main window contains seven buttons:

Eat all cookies: Deletes all the cookies in the Available cookies list. You should close any open browsers before deleting the cookies, since usually most browsers update their cookie list again on closing.
Eat selection: Deletes the selected cookies in the Available cookies list.
Refresh lists: Searches again for available cookies and reload the last saved list of preserved cookies.
Mark favorites: Searches for matches between favorites/bookmarks and the available cookies. Only the favorites or bookmarks from Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Netscape 7 and Gecko-based browsers are used for this.
Save preserved: Saves the list of preserved cookies. There is an option for saving the list automatically in the Options.
Options: Shows the Options window.
Help: Shows a submenu for viewing this file and the About window.

The information panel

This panel displays information about the selected cookie (or about the group of cookies of the same site in Internet Explorer). You can hide this panel in the Options.

4. The options window ^

Cookie folders

Internet Explorer cookies folder: The folder containing the Internet Explorer cookies for the current user.
Mozilla / Netscape 7 profiles folder: The folder containing all the Mozilla / Netscape 7 profiles of the current windows user (both programs share the same folder).
Firefox profiles folder: The folder containing all the Firefox profiles of the current windows user.
Opera profile folder: The folder containing the profile information for Opera.
Netscape 4.x profiles folder: The folder containing all the user profiles for Netscape 4.x.
Custom profiles folder for Gecko-based browsers: You can use this box to enter the folder containing the user profiles for Gecko-based browsers like Firebird, K-Meleon... If you don't use Mozilla or Netscape, you can also use that box for other Gecko-based browsers.

Usually this folders are auto-detected by the program (with the exception of the last one). If the auto-detection fails for some reason, you can select them by hand using the button in the right side. Also, you can use the Auto-detect browsers button located at the bottom for setting back the auto-detected folders.

Browsers based on Internet Explorer like MyIE2 or SlimBrowser usually share with it the same cookie folder (and also the cookies themselves).

Other options

Confirm cookies deletion: When enabled a message is shown asking for confirmation before deleting any cookies. Before disabling this option take note of the fact that is not possible undo the deletion of the cookies.
Save preserved cookie list on exit: If enabled, the list of preserved cookies is saved automatically at program exit. If this option is disabled, the list is only saved when the Save preserved button is used.
Delete cookies at session start: If enabled, the cookies are deleted automatically at the beginning of the Windows session. The program still will ask for confirmation unless you disable the deletion confirmation.
Allow drag & drop between cookie lists: If enabled, you can move cookies between both lists with the mouse using drag & drop.
Show cookie information: When enabled, the cookie information panel is shown in the main window.
Show browser names in lists: When enabled the names of the browsers are shown in the cookie lists.
Show full web site names in lists: If enabled, the full web site name included in each cookie is shown in the cookie lists. By default, if the web site name contains the "www." part, that part is removed.
Sort lists by: Selects the order of lists: by web site name or by browser.
Lists font size: Selects the font size of the cookie lists.

5. Usage notes ^

The "Eat those cookies" shortcut will delete the cookies directly without showing the main window (all but the preserved ones). If you have enabled the "Confirm cookies deletion" option a confirmation dialog will be presented showing the cookies that are going to be deleted. This also can be done using the command-line parameter "-auto".
The index.dat file. This file is located in the Internet Explorer cookies folder and basically contains a list of the names of the files used for storing cookies. It doesn't store the real information of the cookies, which is stored in the .txt files located in the same folder. Also, this file is protected by the system and can't be deleted as usual.

Due to this sometimes the cookies still appear in the Temporary Internet Files folder after deleting them with Cookie Monster. You can see the cookie file name, but if you try to see any of the cookies deleted you will receive a "File not found" error (the situation is similar as when you uninstall a program but still there is a shortcut to that program left in the Desktop or in the Start Menu).
If the browsers are detected, but no cookie files are found, open some web pages and try again, since is possible that the cookies had been deleted previously.

6. Credits ^

If you have any suggestion, you find a bug, etc., send me an e-mail.

Windows XP Desktop Themes support provided by the Windows XP Theme Manager, by Mike Lischke

Thanks to Santiago A. F. Vega for his corrections, and also to all people that have send me me suggestions and bug reports.