Tech Outpost

[Calls]

Until recently, if I wanted to just check on what cookies were on my machine, I would go to

C:/Users/Me//AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/Cookies/Low

there I would see the cookies listed in this way

"myname" @symantec.com

or

"myname" @yahoo.com

But today when I take that same path, I see this instead

just a random group of numbers and letters 8 long, eample

NT34K3TH

they are shown to be text documents like cookies are and when I open them up (the text documents) they do show what the website is and all are legit

Any thoughts as to why they don't show like they always have?  I use Vista Home Premium 32 bit with Vista SP2

[floplot Norton Fighter]

Hello Calls

I have been noticing the same thing with my xp pro xp 3. I think that started happening after the last windows updates. You can still click on each one to see what it actually is, but now it does take longer to do since you have to go thru each one to see what it is.

[Calls]

Thanks Floplot

I haven't gotten a microsft update sine 8/9/11. I have looked at cookies since then and just noticed this within the last few days

I don't think its an issue of the cookies being malicious, they just appear different.

Would anyone know how to get them to look the oldw way where you see the website they are from?

I've gone through all options on how to get them to "show" in the folder, but none bring back the previous way of showing the web page they are from.

I even rebooted a few times to see if that would help

would it have to do with any Norton updates that may have changed how they are seen?

: (

[floplot Norton Fighter]

Hello Calls

I have some cookies looking like that since aug. 11 which would coincide when I did my windows updates. It is possible however, that Norton might  have had also some time since starting on Aug 11.

[Calls]

well, I guess then I'm not the only one experiencing this, eh?

[SendOfJive Norton Fighter]

Hi Calls and floplot,

This is due a critical Microsoft update that changed the way cookie names are handled in IE.  As a security measure, cookies are now named using randomized alphanumeric names.  Scroll down in the following blog post to "Cookie FIlenames are Randomized"  for information:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ieinternals/archive/2011/08/12/internet-explorer-9.0.2-update-changes-file-p...

There has been a lot of discussion of this as it affected WinPatrol:

http://billpstudios.blogspot.com/

[Calls]

Thanks SOJ
tried to pull up the articles on my phone, but unable to

Anyway~
So this is something to do withe the August microsoft updates, eh?
Does it efffect all IE browsers, 7, 8, and 9?

[SendOfJive Norton Fighter]

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Calls wrote:
So this is something to do withe the August microsoft updates, eh?
Does it efffect all IE browsers, 7, 8, and 9?

---

Yes to all.

[Calls]

Thanks SOJ & Floplot
so nothing we (the users) can do about this, eh?