A cookie, or browser cookie, is a snippet of text stored on your hard drive by your web browser. Typical use for cookies include user authentication, storing site preferences, shopping cart contents, session data, etc.

Internet Explorer does give you the ability to delete cookies from within the browser by going to Tools > Internet Options and deleting cookies from your Browsing History. While this option typically works, there are a few scenarios that may prevent you from deleting cookies from Internet Explorer. In that case you may need to resort to a manual deletion of the cookies.

Manually deleting Internet Explorer's cookies from your hard drive differs depending on which operating system you have. In this post we will discuss Windows 7 and Windows XP. Windows Vista structure is likelly very similar to the Windows 7 instructions but has not be tested against the steps outlined in this blog post.

Windows 7

1. Open Windows Explorer

2. Click "Organize" in the upper left corner

3. Click the "Folder and search options" drop down menu item

4. In the Folder Options window, click the "View" tab

5. In the Advanced settings pane:

   5.a. Turn on "Show hidden files, folders, and drives"

   5.b. Turn off "Hide extensions for known file types"

   5.c. Turn off "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)"

6. Windows will prompt you with an alert box, Click Yes or OK

7. On the Folder Options window, click Apply to accept the changes

8. Click OK to close the Folder Options window

9. Now, in Windows Explorer, you can navigate to and see the content of the Cookies folder

Path to Cookies folders in Windows 7:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies\Low

Replace username with your Windows login name.

10. Select the Cookie or Cookies and delete

11. After you are finished managing your cookies you can revert your changes taken in the steps above

Windows XP

1. With Windows Explorer open go to the menu item "Tools > Folder Options…"

2. In the Folder Options window click the "View" tab.

3. In the Advanced setting pane:

   3.a. Turn on "Show hidden files and folders"

   3.b. Turn off "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)"

   3.c. Windows will prompt you with an alert box, Click "Yes"

4. On the Folder Options window, click Apply to accept the changes

5. Click OK to close the Folder Options window

6. Now, in Windows Explorer, you can navigate to and see the content of the Cookies folder

Path to Cookies folder in Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Cookies

Replace username with your Windows login name. If you do not login with a username then replace username with "Administrator".

7. Select the Cookie or Cookies and delete 

8. After you are finished managing your cookies you can revert your changes taken in the steps above

As reported by StatCounter, IE6 has fallen below 5% market share in the U.S. and Europe for the first time EVER. This is great news for the whole of internet users that seek a truly interactive and robust experience on the Internet. With the news of IE6 being used by this few of people, more web developers may follow in the mold of YouTube and withdraw support for IE6.

StatCounter's numbers are based on a data set of 15 billion page views for May 2010 collected from the StatCounter network of over three million websites. These numbers show IE6 slipping from 11.5% to 4.7% in a 12 month period.

For now, Norlight Professional Services will continue to support IE6, but that may be changing in the future if IE6 keeps falling out of the market.

If you would be interested in discussing how Norlight Professional Services can assist you with a website redesign, SEO, usability improvements, or a custom application please contact us: nps@norlight.com; on Twitter @nps_norlight; facebook.com/nps.norlight.