Learn how to enable internet cookies across different types of browser and various devices.
How to Enable Cookies
Cookies can be very useful to everyday browsing. They can help speed up the loading of a web page, ensure your preferences are remembered and generally help control what is presented to you. Many site will not function correctly without having cookies enabled on your browser. The following pages will allow you to take control of your browser settings and either enable or disable cookies for your type of browser. Simply select the correct browser type and then ensure you follow the instructions that relate to your specific browser version.
- Enable Cookies on Firefox
- Enable Cookies on Internet Explorer
- Enable Cookies on Chrome
- Enable Cookies on Safari
- Enable Cookies on Opera
Should I enable or disable cookies?
Now before the paranoia kicks in, let’s be clear about something – they don’t care about you specifically. Sorry, but you’re just not that important. The sheer volume of data alone makes tracking any one individual a difficult task. What’s typically interesting is aggregate data: the data that says things like X percent of the visitors to this website also visit that website. That’s not to say that cookies can’t be misused; it’s just that it’s typically a lot more work than it’s worth. You can see what cookies you have and what they contain, but it’s typically not particularly interesting. In Internet Explorer, hit Tools, Internet Options, the General tab, underneath Temporary Internet Files click on Settings. In the resulting dialog click on View Files. That’ll bring up a list of all all temporary files, including cookies. I typically click on the Name column header to sort by name, and then scroll down to the point where the name begins with “Cookie:”. There they are. Another approach is to download a Cookie viewing program to make things a little more readable. I’ve used Cookie Viewer from KarenWare. In either case, if you look at the contents of a cookie, they’re typically very obscure. It’s common practice to simply store a unique identifier of some sort and not much more. That ID usually makes sense only to the website that put it there, and effectively makes the cookie useless to others even if they could get at it.
You can control how Internet Explorer handles cookies to reduce any concerns you may still have. On the Privacy tab of Internet Options you can set the level of cookie handling IE should follow. That includes not only allowing, or blocking, all cookies, but also controlling third-party cookies resulting from things like embedded ads I mentioned earlier. And you can define an explicit list of sites from which you’re prepared to accept cookies.
More to come…
What risks am I introducing be allowing coookies
Can I activate/deactivate only certain cookies
How do I switch on Cookie warnings and prevent dangerous cookies
How can I see what cookies are loaded on my browser
How to enable Chrome cookies
Step one
From the tools menu, which is accessed via the spanner icon in the top right-hand corner, select Options.
Step two
Select the Under the Bonnet tab and then press Content Settings.
Step three
From the section marked Cookies, tick the box next to Allow local data to be set, which will allow first-party and third-party cookies.
Step four
At any time if you want to disable cookies, simply uncheck the boxes next to Accept cookies from sites and Accept third party cookies.
Firefox 5
Step one
From the Tools menu at the top of the browser window, select option.
Step two
Click on the privacy tab and from the drop down menu located next to the section labelled history, select Use custom settings for history.
Step three
Make sure the boxes next to Accept cookies from sites and Accept third party cookies are checked. Press OK.
Step four
At any time if you want to disable cookies, simply uncheck the boxes next to Accept cookies from sites and Accept third party cookies.
Mozilla Firefox 4
Click on Tools, then Options (or Edit | Preferences on Linux)
Select Privacy
Select Cookies.
Choose your preferred settings (You can configure which sites are allowed to set cookies, how long to keep them for, and view and manage your existing cookies).
Mozilla Firefox 3
Click on Tools, then Options (or Edit | Preferences on Linux)
Select Privacy
Select Cookies.
Choose your preferred settings (You can configure which sites are allowed to set cookies, how long to keep them for, and view and manage your existing cookies).
Mozilla Firefox 2.0
Click on Tools, then Options (or Edit | Preferences on Linux)
Select the Privacy icon in the left-hand panel
Click on Cookies.
Choose your preferred settings.
Note that the option to block third-party cookies has been removed from Firefox 2’s user interface. Firefox 2 users who wish to limit allowed cookies to those set by the originating website can use about:config to modify the preference network.cookie.cookieBehavior to “1”. To modify this property simply type “about:config” (without quotes) in the Location Bar, press Enter and modify the value in the resulting page.
Other options for the network.cookie.cookieBehavior preference are set out below:
“0” All cookies are allowed. (Default)
“1” Only cookies from the originating server are allowed.
“2” No cookies are allowed.
Mozilla Firefox 1.5
Click on Tools, then Options (or Edit | Preferences on Linux)
Select the Privacy icon in the left-hand panel
Click on Cookies.
Choose your preferred settings (You can configure which sites are allowed to set cookies, how long to keep them for, and view and manage your existing cookies).
Mozilla Firefox 1.0
Click on Tools, then Options
Select the Privacy icon in the left-hand panel
Click on Cookies.
Choose your preferred settings.
Internet Explorer 9
Step one
From the Tools menu located at the top right-hand corner of the browser window, select Internet options
Step two
Click on the Privacy tab and then press Advanced
Step three
Check the box under Override automatic cookie handling and then make sure Accept is selected for both First-party cookies and Third-party cookies. Press OK to apply the changes.
Step four
If you want to disable cookies, simply select the block option rather than Accept.
Internet Explorer 8.0
Choose Tools and then Internet Options
Click the Privacy tab
Move the slider to choose your preferred settings.
For more specialised cookie settings click on Advanced, check the ‘Override cookie handling’ button and modify the settings to suit your requirements.
Internet Explorer 7.0
Choose Tools and then Internet Options
Click the Privacy tab
Move the slider to choose your preferred settings.
The default setting is medium and the menu allows you to select the level of “filtering” on the basis of (a) the source of the cookie and (b) whether the source has a privacy policy.
For more specialised cookie settings click on Advanced
Internet Explorer 6.0
Choose Tools and then Internet Options
Click the Privacy tab
Move the slider to choose your preferred settings.
The default setting is medium and the menu allows you to select the level of “filtering” on the basis of (a) the source of the cookie and (b) whether the source has a privacy policy.
For more specialised cookie settings click on Advanced
Enable Cookies in Opera (Windows and UNIX)
Step one
Go to Tools in the main menu and then click on Preferences at the bottom of the File menu (or press Alt+P to access them directly).
Step two
Click Privacy and select one of the available options.
Step three
In addition to choosing different settings for first-party (“normal”) and third-party cookies, you may edit cookie settings on a domain/server basis or even edit individual cookies by clicking the “Manage cookies” button.
How to Enable Cookies in Safari
Safari
Step one
Open Safari, and then using the icon that looks like a cog, open the settings menu and Select Preferences.
Step two
Select the Security tab from the top of the window and next to Accept cookies, make sure the box entitled Always is ticked.
Step three
Alternatively, if you want to disable cookies check the box next Never.
