Clearing Internet Cookies to speed up the computer

This is all done on the Windows Vista operating system.

Are you thinking, what's an Internet cookie?  Well, an internet cookie is something that gets stored on the hard drive that is used by the Internet Browser.  The browser sees the cookie and is able to load that website information quicker.  That sounds like a good thing, but in reality a lot of cookies slow down the computer.  It's almost like if you ate too many cookies, you would slow down too.

In order to clear them out and help improve the performance of your computer, you will need to go to the Internet Options for whichever browser you are using.  I will show how to do this with Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, the two browsers that I use regularly.  The reason I use two is because some things only work in Mozilla Firefox and some other things only work in Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer  (I am using version 8, but any version should work for this)

There are 2 ways to get to the Internet options for Internet Explorer.  
     1)  When you have Internet Explorer open, click on Tools and then Internet Options.
     2)  Click on Start --> Control Panel.  Double click Internet Options in the Control Panel. 
           Note: If you are using Windows Vista, then make sure you are on Classic View.
 Internet Options screen should look like this:

Click on the Delete button under Browsing History.  If you click on the option to delete browsing history on exit, then every time you exit out of Internet Explorer, all of your browser history will be erased.

This is where you can choose which things you would like to remove from your hard drive.  Temporary Internet Files, Cookies, and Browsing History have already been checked for you.  I recommend those options also.  You don't want to remove Form Data or Passwords unless you want to re-enter those things on specific websites.  Once you have chosen your options, click Delete.

Mozilla Firefox (I am using version 3.6, but any version should work for this)
There is only one way to remove the cookies from Mozilla Firefox.  While in Firefox, click on Tools, and then Clear Recent History (Ctrl+Shift+Del also works).  This will open up another window.

Last Hour is already selected for you.  You can choose between Last Hour, Last Two Hours, Last Four Hours, Today, or Everything.  Only choose Everything if you want to get rid of all Browsing History from Mozilla Firefox.  I would recommend choosing Browsing & Download History, Cookies, and Cache.  Click on Clear Now and everything that you have selected will be removed for Firefox.

Another tip done and I hope this has helped you understand cookies more.  Talking about cookies has made me hungry, so I am going to have some dinner.