Windows 7: Cookies?

Can't seem to allow certain cookies. A minor problem, but annoying. For instance, I have msnbc.com as my homepage and it won't maintain my preferred news and weather settings. I can't really tell if this is Windows 7 or Norton, but I've made all the obvious changes to settings in Windows for allowing cookies, but no luck. Any suggestions?

Its possible MSNBC cookies are simply being cleared. You may have IE configured to delete cookies on exit (see the checkbox Delete browsing history on exit checkbox unchecked inside Tools > Internet Options > General). Or, perhaps you’ve deleted browser history manually using the Delete Browser History command. It’s also possible that your cookies are being cleared by another piece of software, such as Norton or CCleaner.

The way I manage this is to ONLY use CCleaner to cleanup. CCleaner has an option to retain the cookies one wants to, these are excluded from the cleanup.

Also, make sure Norton is not set to remove tracking cookies after a scan.

I figured it would be something simple that I just couldn't find. Thanks!

In addition make sure that that website is included in favorites. A while back, I read that sites in favorites will not have cookies deleted as part of the regular cleanup routine. If this theory proves to be untrue, no loss.

This is true if the option is selected in IE8 options but, I've found it to be a hit or miss. Sometimes it saved them, sometimes not. As of one month ago, I took the time do as Bill has suggested and started using Ccleaner for this purpose. It took some time going through and making an exception for the cookies but so far it's been worth it.