Cookie Monster 3.47

Help contents

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

1. Description ^

This utility is a manager for the cookies created by the most usual Windows browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Mozilla 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. You can set a list with the cookies that you want to protect and then delete the remaining ones with a simple mouse click (all the browsers at the same time). It also have the option of detecting the cookies for the sites included in your favorites and/or bookmarks.

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

See Changes.txt for the changes history.

2. License agreement ^

This software is freeware either for personal or comercial use, so you can use it for free without any type of additional licenses. For 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 for the software itself, and only if you use 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:

Cookies found: The Cookies found lists shows the cookies stored by the browsers detected in the system (you can change the list of browsers used in the Options).
Protected cookies:The Protected cookies list shows the cookies selected for protection (they won't be deleted by the program). The list is divided in two parts:
- Protected cookies: The cookies that Cookie Monster have in the protected list and are still active.
- Cookies protected but not found: If some of the cookies protected in past sessions are not found (e.g. the cookie expired or was deleted from the browser cookie manager), 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 automatically protected by Cookie Monster.

You can double-click an item in both lists to view the data associated with the selected cookie (except for Opera).

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

In Windows 2000/XP/Vista the program detects the cookies of the current Windows user.
In Windows 9x/Me the program usually detects all the cookies at the same time (even if you have set different profiles).

Note that session cookies won't be detected since they aren't saved to disk. See the Usage notes section for more details about session cookies.

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 Cookies founds list to the protected list.
Add all the cookies (double green arrow): Move all the cookies in the Cookies found list to the protected list.
Remove all the cookies (double red arrow): Remove all the cookies from the Protected 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 again creates that cookie.
Remove selected cookies (red arrow): Remove the selected cookies from the Protected 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.
Firefox, Google Chrome, Mozilla and other 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 eight buttons:

Eat cookies: Deletes all the cookies in the Available cookies list. You have to close all the browsers before deleting the cookies, since most of them update the cookies when closing and some don't allow other program access the cookies while they are active.
Eat selection: Deletes the selected cookies in the Available cookies list.
Mark favorites: Searches for matches between the found cookies and the favorites or bookmarks of each browser (except Opera).
Refresh lists: Searches again for available cookies and reload the last saved list of protected cookies. The button menu also contains the following items:
- Export protected cookies list: Exports the list of protected cookies to a file (e.g. for backup purposes).
- Import protected cookies list: Imports the list of protected cookies from a previously saved list file.
Save protected list: Saves the list of protected cookies. There is an option for saving the list automatically in the Options.
Options: Shows the Options window.
Help: Shows the Help file. The button menu also shows the About window.
Exit: Closes the program (doesn't minimize to the taskbar icon).

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.
Firefox profiles folder: The folder containing the Firefox profile(s) of the current windows user.
Google Chrome profiles folder: The folder containing the Chrome profile(s) of the current windows user.
Opera profile folder: The folder containing the profile of the current user.
Mozilla / Netscape 7 profiles folder: The folder containing the Mozilla / Netscape 7 profiles of the current windows user (both programs share the same folder).
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 K-Meleon. If you don't use Mozilla, you could also use that box for other Gecko-based browser.

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 manually using the button located next to each box. 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 SlimBrowser usually share with it the same cookie folder (and 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 to undo the deletion of the cookies.
Check opened browsers before deletion: If this option is enabled the program won't allow to delete the cookies if any of the browsers is active.
Show cookie information: Shows the cookie information panel in the main window.
Save protected cookie list on exit: If enabled, the list of protected cookies is saved automatically at program exit. If this option is disabled, the list is only saved when the Save protected button is used.
Delete cookies at session start: Deletes the cookies automatically at the beginning of the Windows session. The program still will ask for confirmation unless you disable the deletion confirmation.
Show taskbar icon: Enables/disables the taskbar icon. When enabled, closing the main window minimizes the application to the taskbar icon (you can always use the Exit button to finish the application).
Load on Windows startup: Run the application at session start as taskbar icon. This option is not available if Show taskbar icon is disabled.
Auto-refresh cookie lists: When enabled the lists of cookies are updated when Cookie Monster is activated (e.g. switching from another application).
Allow drag & drop between cookie lists: If enabled, you can move cookies between both lists dragging them with the mouse.
Show browser names in lists: Shows the names of the browsers to which each cookie belongs 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, the lists don't show the "www." part of the URL.
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 protected 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 Temporary Internet Files "cookies" and the index.dat file. The index.dat 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 there is still a shortcut to that program in the Desktop or in the Start Menu).
There is special kind of cookies named "session cookies" that aren't saved to disk, since they only exists in the main memory until the browser is closed, and thus they won't be detected by Cookie Monster (they are often used in secure logins like banks and online payments).

In some browsers like Firefox and Chrome you can see that cookies using the Show cookies button (in Firefox you can locate it in Options->Privacy and in Options->Under the hood for Chrome). Session cookies have in the expiration time something like "at end of session".
If a browser is detected, but no cookie files for that browser are found, open some web pages and try again, since it's possible that the cookies had been deleted previously by the browser itself.

6. Credits ^

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

Uses the SQLite 3 DLL, which is available in the Public Domain.

SQLite support provided by the Simple Delphi wrapper for SQLite by Tim Anderson.

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

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