Cookies not clearing

Hi Folks, here's my problem: I am fanatical about clearing all data from browsing regularly during the course of the day. I simply put a short-cut to Internet Properties on my desktop and clear all activity with the push of the Delete button; at least up until very recently, when I discovered that even though I have all cookies disabled - unless I need them for a specific activity (such as banking for example) - they are still appearing in the cookie file and are not being cleared by the Internet Properties delete button. I can, of course, simply select them and manually delete them, but I am now very suspicious (actually I'm always very suspicious but now extra so) about what MS is doing. Any input gratefully received as usual. Cheers.
PS. I'm using the last Internet Explorer which is 11 I think.

If you are even remotely concered with Internet privacy and security you'll ditch IE. I would use Firefox or Pale Moon. Pale Moon is my go to, but you need the add-on UAControl and set your default UA to that of a Firefox UA as Pale Moon makes use of its own UA and many websites do UA sniffing. When they see the Pale Moon UA they have a chocking fit and won't render properly. That's probably the biggest issue seen with Pale Moon at this time. UA stands for User Agent. You can see different UA's here: UserAgentString.com - List of User Agent Strings

I use Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/60.0

To stay abreast of the latest Firefox versions go here: Mozilla Firefox Web Browser — Mozilla Firefox Release Notes — Mozilla

You wouldn't use 60.0.2, you'll just use 60, etc. Like you see in my current UA that I use.

Now for the best damn piece of software you could ever use. Sandboxie - Sandbox software for application isolation and secure Web browsing

This is free for 30 days. After of which when you launch your default browser you'll get a pop up screen about buying it and it will count down for 5 seconds. Simply hit close after 5 seconds and your browser launches as normal. Just a small price to pay for free. But it will trash all cookies, cache, HTML5 cookies, etc on browser exit. It should be configured. Go to their forum and read about it and ask questions there.

Note that if you open magnet torrent links with the use of Sandboxie, the torrent will download into Sandboxie until it completes. So if you intend on opening a magnet link, do so without launching Sandboxie and just launch the browser instead. Also, when you go to update the browser, don't use Sandboxie to do so. Just launch the browser and update. Close and use Sandboxie again otherwise the update won't stick. Same for add-ons. But things can be highly configured in its options.


This may all sound like a royal PITA, but believe me it's well worth it for the protection it affords you.

Note that you may see cookies in your computer that are not even related to your browser at all even though you may think so. Such is the case when you launch Windows Media Player. It will generate its own cookies. That's why when you use something like Ccleaner and you see constant cookies even though you don't save cookies in your browser it's due to using WMP or something else that generated the cookies.

Thank-you F22, I appreciate the time and trouble you took to help me. Unfortunately, much of what you said is beyond my experience and understanding.
I do realise that IE is getting past its sell-by date, and I am often prodded into using Chrome; again, unfortunately, I am rather disinclined to start launching into new software - due to my inexperience.
I am sure that all you recommended has creditable value to anyone capable of working with it, but I am equally sure that I am not.
Really, this issue of mine, which has only just begun, can be resolved by pulling up the relevant page and manually deleting the cookies; it's just that I fear MS is manipulating in the background - which makes me nervous.

Thank-you too Paul. I installed CCleaner at Christmas because I wanted to keep a couple of cookies on my system and it allowed me to do that. However, for some reason that I don't now recall I uninstalled it and went back to the MS system. I will download the latest version and go back to using it. I do remember it being suitably comprehensive without being over complicated. Point taken about messing with the registry: I've only ever approached it under Brink's guidance.

In addition to Ccleaner check out System Ninja. It will clear out way more temp files on your hard drive than Ccleaner. Just keep the folder config files option unticked.

I will, thanks once again F22.
I'm still very suspicious about this issue arising out of the blue recently.