Problem
Is there a way to tell which of the cookies on my PC are helping, and which
ones are spying? - Harlan Davis, Warrenville, Illinois
Solution
A cookie is merely a small file that a Web site puts on your PC to identify
you, or to store information about you or your computer, such as your IP
address. The good ones save you the trouble of logging on to the site on
return visits, a big help if you use subscription news services such as that
of the
New York Times.
The bad cookies are placed by ad companies that pay for the right to place
advertising on the sites' pages (some sites also leave their own ad
cookies). These files track your visits to pages that display their clients'
ads (or their own), and they may tailor the ads you see to your browsing
history.
Over time, cookies can reveal your browsing habits, though standard ad
cookies, like those that DoubleClick uses, can't attach a name to a specific
surfing trail.
That means, if you wipe out your cookies as soon as you close your browser,
the ad networks never get a chance to track your surfing from session to
session.
Internet Explorer 6 and 7 and Firefox 1.x and 2 have good
cookie-handling procedures. IE lets you keep first-party cookies (left by
the site you're visiting) but block those from third parties: Select
Tools, Internet Options, Privacy, Advanced. In the Advanced
Privacy Settings dialog box, check Override automatic cookie handling
(see FIGURE 1). Under 'First-party Cookies', select Accept; under
'Third-party Cookies', choose Block. Ignore the session cookies
option. Click OK twice.
Firefox 2 can accept, and regularly wipe away, any cookie you haven't
explicitly told it to keep: Click Tools, Options, Privacy, check
Accept cookies from sites, and in the 'Keep until' drop-down box,
select I close Firefox. To keep cookies from a few trusted sites,
click Exceptions, and in the dialog box, enter the URLs of the
sites whose first-party cookies you wish to keep in the 'Address of web
site' field. Click Allow for each, and when you're done, click Close
And OK. If you're using Firefox 1.5, click Tools, Options,
Privacy, Cookies, check Allow sites to set cookies, and choose
for the originating site only.
Many security programs, including Norton Internet Security, PC-Cillin, and
Ad-Aware, also identify and destroy known spying cookies.
Disable the Windows Key
Problem
I'm a computer gamer. Accidentally hitting the Windows key in the middle of
a game is a disaster. Can I disable it? - Joe Barteluce, Kelso,
Washington
Solution
You can with a little Registry tweaking. But back up the Registry first; see
the boxed item below for details. Once the Registry is backed up, select
Start, Run (just Start in Vista), type regedit, and
press <Enter>. In the left pane, navigate to and select
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout
(this is not to be confused with the 'Keyboard Layouts' option just beneath
it). Click Edit, New, Binary Value, name the new value Scancode
Map, and then double-click it. Enter the code below, which will wrap
automatically as shown here:
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 5B E0 00 00 5C E0 00 00 00 00
Click
OK, close the Registry Editor, and reboot Windows. Your
Windows key will be no more. If you want to disable the Windows key only for
specific applications, try the free
WinKey Killer utility.
Back Up the Registry in Windows XP and Vista
It's always a good idea to back up the Windows Registry before installing
new software or making other system changes. In XP, select Start, All
Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. Click Create a
restore point, choose Next, and follow the prompts. In Vista,
click Start, type sysdm.cpl, and press <Enter>.
In the User Account Control box, enter your password if necessary and select
Continue. Choose System Protection, Create, and then
follow the prompts. Another option, and the best for users of Windows 2000
(which lacks System Restore), is the free
ERUNT utility.