Cookie Management with WinPatrol

Started by Corrine, June 19, 2011, 06:56:19 PM

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Corrine

Although updated browsers have tools for managing cookies, cookie management by WinPatrol is a favorite feature of many people.  Long-time users of WinPatrol may not have realized that due to changes in Firefox, it is necessary to close the browser in order to manage cookies with WinPatrol. 

What if WinPatrol is not finding your Cookies folder?  There are a couple of situations where this may occur.  The examples below illustrate the reasons why WinPatrol may not be locating your cookies.

Firefox

In Firefox, WinPatrol may not locate the Cookies folder if your Firefox installation is not the default location or if WinPatrol is pointing to a specific file rather than the path.  The first step if you cannot see the Firefox cookies is to close Firefox and try again with the browser closed. 

Should you still be unable to view Firefox cookies, it may be that you have created a new Firefox profile or perhaps it is not stored in the default location. As a result, Scotty may have difficulty locating the Firefox cookie stash.  If that is the case, jump to the Change Cookie Path in WinPatrol instructions below.

Another possibility is that WinPatrol is looking at a file in AppData, not to a the correct path.

    (Note: AppData is a hidden folder. See Show hidden files for instructions to display hidden files and folders.)

Correct Location:

     Windows XP -- C:\Documents and settings\%User%\Application Data\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\%Profile%.default 
     Windows Vista and Windows 7 -- C:\Users\%User%\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\%Profile%.default

The incorrect location would be the above location extended to cookies.sqlite (i.e., C:\Users\%User%\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\%Profile%.default\cookies.sqlite)

Reminder: Firefox must be closed in order to view/manage Mozilla cookies with WinPatrol. This is because Firefox locks the cookies file so other applications cannot open it.

Internet Explorer

On Windows 7 with UAC and Protected Mode enabled, the browser is being run as a low privilege process.  Protected Mode is a browser security feature.  Note, however, that with Protected Mode enabled, cookies are stored in the LOW version of the Cookies folder:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies\Low

In WinPatrol the default IE cookie directory is set to:  C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies\.  Thus, with Windows 7 and Protected Mode enabled, you may find it necessary to change the location in WinPatrol to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies\Low

Change Cookie Path in WinPatrol

To change the WinPatrol path to a different Cookie folder:


  • Launch WinPatrol and select the Cookies tab.
  • Select the browser that you wish to change (Internet Explorer or Mozilla Based). 
  • Click the small folder icon located at the bottom left of the current Cookie path.
  • Navigate to the correct path and click "open".
  • Click "Open" again.  Note that the File name will show "Path".



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