• Cookie Pal does not seem to be working. What can I do?
• I still see the Internet Explorer "Security Alert" or Netscape cookie alert messages even though I have Cookie Pal running.
• Cookie Pal does not recognize cookies from a program that I am running.
• Cookie Pal does not intercept cookies from Opera.
• When I delete cookies, they keep coming back.
• Why is the Session page blank when I know I have received cookies?
• Why don’t cookies which I have received show up on the cookies page?
• How do I configure Cookie Pal to work with my non-English version of Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator?
• What is the CPBRWTCH.EXE program?
• When I run my web browser without Cookie Pal I now see annoying dialog boxes asking about Cookies.
• How do I turn off the sound that gets played when Cookie Pal encounters a cookie?

Possibility 1

Cookie Pal relies on the warnings which your browser normally displays when a cookie is received. If your browser does not display these warning messages then Cookie Pal cannot work. You can check to make sure that "Cookie Warnings" are enabled for your browser by following these instructions.

Possibility 2

If the cookie icon in the taskbar tray never changes to a smile, then it is likely that the browser you are using is not a standard version of Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer, or that you have another program running which is displaying cookie messages (such as a stock ticker program, or some news ticker programs). Note that Cookie Pal will not work with 16 bit programs, so make sure that you are using the 32 bit version of your web browser. See the topic below for more information.

Possibility 3

I still see the Internet Explorer "Security Alert" or Netscape cookie alert messages even though I have Cookie Pal running.

This is usually caused because the alert message you are seeing is being displayed by a program which Cookie Pal does not know about. For example, programs such as My Yahoo Newsticker, Napster, chat programs and more can all display cookie messages, and it may not be obvious that these cookies are coming from a different program than your web browser. By default Cookie Pal only intercepts cookies from the major web browsers and some other software.

So what can you do about it? You can get Cookie Pal to monitor these other programs by using the Add Browser command on the tray icon pop-up menu. For details about how to use this command, see the next question below.

Cookie Pal can be configured to work with most programs which can display cookie messages on your screen, such as news ticker programs, Internet chat programs, search programs etc.

There are two ways to configure Cookie Pal as follows:

Using the Modules option on the Configure tab in Cookie Pal
To do this, just go to the Configure tab in the main window of Cookie Pal and click on the Modules button. You can then click the Add button to add a new program that Cookie Pal should watch for cookies. You need to enter the actual name of the .EXE file that is used to run the program as well as a description. You can click the Help button for more information.

Using the Add Browser command

1. Make sure that Cookie Pal is running. You will see the little cookie icon in the taskbar tray (next to the clock in the lower right corner of the screen) when it is running.
2. Wait until you see one of the cookie messages on screen from the program in question.
3. While the cookie message is still displayed, click on the Cookie Pal icon in the taskbar tray with the *right* mouse button. A popup menu will appear, and you will then need to select the "Add Browser" command.
4. Cookie Pal will attempt to find any cookie alerts which are on screen and will try to identify the program which displayed the alert. If the program which displayed the alert is a 16-bit program, then Cookie Pal will report that it cannot find any cookie alerts on the screen.
5. If Cookie Pal does recognize the alert, it will display a message saying that it has detected the program which displayed the alert, and will ask you if you would like to monitor this program in the future. Click Yes to add this program to the list of programs monitored by Cookie Pal.
6. You will then need to restart both Cookie Pal and the other program, before Cookie Pal will work correctly with it.

You may need to change some settings in Opera to get it to fully work with Cookie Pal. Please note that you will need Opera 4.0 or later to get this to work. The follow these instructions:

1. Start Opera.
2. Select the Preferences option on the File menu.
3. Click on the Privacy category on the left hand side of the window.
4. In the first drop-down list in the Cookies section, select the "Display received cookies" option.
5. In the second drop-down list in the Cookies section, select the "Display third party cookies" option.
6. Now click on the "Edit Server Filters" button. Any web sites listed in any of the categories here will be handled automatically by Opera and Cookie Pal will not get a chance to handle the cookies. You should remove any entries from the categories in this list to allow Cookie Pal to gain control.
7. Click OK.
8. Exit out of Opera.

This will usually happen with Netscape and Opera browsers. If this happens then make sure that your web browser is not running when you try to delete the cookie. Netscape and Opera both keep a copy of the cookie file in memory while it is running and writes a new file to disk based on what it currently has in memory at various times while it is running and when it is shut down. Therefore if you delete a cookie in Cookie Pal and then close down Netscape, the cookie file will later be overwritten and the cookie will reappear. As stated earlier, to make sure that cookies are correctly deleted, close down your web browser before deleting the cookies in Cookie Pal.

The Session tab displays cookies which have been received for the current session only. Every time Cookie Pal exits it clears all entries from this tab, so if you start Cookie Pal and immediately look on the Session tab it will always be empty. You should examine the Session tab after you have been web browsing and have received cookies, but before you close your web browser. The "Always Accept" and "Always Reject" buttons will only be enabled when you click on one of the entries in the list on the Session tab to highlight the entry.

Not all cookies that are received are stored permanently on your hard disk. Some cookies are stored only in memory and are discarded when your browser shuts down. These are known as temporary cookies and either have no expiration date, or their expiration date will be set to End of Session.

Also, it is possible that Cookie Pal is not looking in the correct place on your disk for any existing cookies (although Cookie Pal should correctly determine the location of your cookies automatically). If you are using Internet Explorer, cookies are stored in your Windows\Cookies directory, or in your Windows\Profiles\<UserName>\Cookies directory, depending on whether or not you have user profiles set up on your machine. Each cookie is stored in a separate file with a name ending in .TXT. If you are using Netscape, all cookies are stored in a single file named cookies.txt. You can use the windows "Find files or folders" feature to search for cookies.txt to find where it is located on your system.

You can verify the location where Cookie Pal is looking for your permanent cookies by displaying the main window of Cookie Pal and clicking on the Cookies tab. The folder in which Cookie Pal looks for cookies is displayed at the bottom of the window.

If you find that Cookie Pal is not looking in the right place, you can tell Cookie Pal to explicitly look for cookies in a particular directory by clicking the Change button on the Cookies tab and selecting the correct directory.

How do I configure Cookie Pal to work with my non-English version of Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator?

Cookie Pal has built in support for the following languages:

• English
• Dutch
• French
• German
• Italian
• Spanish
• Swedish

1. Double click on the cookie icon in the taskbar tray (next to the clock in the lower right corner of the screen) to display the main Window of Cookie Pal.
2. Click on the Configure tab.
3. Click on the "Browser Settings" button.
4. In either the Internet Explorer or Netscape section of this window, click on the Defaults button and then select the desired language.

If you need to support a browser from a language other than the ones listed above then you will need to do a little more work.

First you will need to note the *title* of the window which appears when you receive a cookie. You will need to enter this text (exactly the same including upper/lower case) into the "Cookie window title" field on the Configure tab in Cookie Pal.

Next you will need to note the text which appears immediately before the expiration date which is displayed on the cookie alert window. You will need to enter this text into the "Expiration date text" field on the Configure tab in Cookie Pal.

Next, make sure that the word which appears in the "Cookie text" field in Cookie Pal appears somewhere on the cookie alert window.

Once you have done all of this, Cookie Pal should recognize the cookie alerts from your browser.

The CPBRWTCH.EXE program is used to enable the auto-start feature of Cookie Pal. If you set the Startup Method (on the Configure tab) to Start with browser then the CPBRWTCH.EXE program will be used to monitor when your web browser starts so that Cookie Pal can be loaded when needed. An entry is added to the registry, under the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run key so that CPBRWTCH.EXE will be loaded each time you start Windows. This program runs in the background and consumes very little resources or processor time. If you select the Start manually or Start with Windows Startup Method then the Registry entry is removed and the CPBRWTCH.EXE program will be closed.

Cookie Pal relies on the warnings which your browser normally displays when a cookie is received. These warning settings are turned on by default when Cookie Pal is installed and whenever a web browser is started while Cookie Pal is running. If Cookie Pal is running it will intercept the warning messages for you, but if you run your web browser without Cookie Pal you may want to turn off these warnings. Be aware that by doing this, your web browser will automatically accept all cookies which it receives.

To change the warning settings of your browser follow these steps:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x

Then Click OK and then click OK again to store and accept these changes.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x

1. Select "Internet Options" from the Tools menu.
2. Click on the Security tab.
3. Click on each of the zones in turn.
4. For each zone, click on the Default Level to restore the default security settings for that zone. This will disable warning messages. To enable warning messages you should select Custom for each Security Zone and scroll down for the options for cookies. You can then select to display a message before accepting a cookie.
5. Click OK to close the dialog box and store the options.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0

1. Select the "Options..." command from the View menu in Internet Explorer.
2. Click on the Advanced tab of the dialog box which appears.
3. Scroll down the list until you see the options for Cookies under the Security heading.
4. To enable warning messages ensure that the "Prompt before accepting cookies" option is selected. To disable warning messages select either the "Always accept cookies" option or the "Always reject cookies" option is selected.
5. Now look for the option titled "Browse in a new process".
6. Cookie Pal requires that this option be checked and may not work correctly without it. Specifically this option is needed in order for the auto-start feature of Cookie Pal to work.
7. Click OK to close the dialog box and store the options.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x

1. Select the Options... command from the View menu in Internet Explorer.
2. Click on the Advanced tab of the dialog box which appears.
3. To enable warning messages ensure that the "Warn before accepting cookies" option is checked. To disable warning messages ensure that this option is not checked.
4. Click OK to close the dialog box and store the options.

Netscape Navigator 4.x

1.  Select "Preferences..." from the Edit menu.
2. Click on the word "Advanced" in the category list on the left side of the window.
3. To enable warning messages ensure that the "Warn me before accepting a cookie" on the right hand side of the dialog is selected. To disable warning messages, make sure that this option does not have a check mark in the box. To give Cookie Pal full control, you should also select the "Accept all cookies" option, and delete the permanent cookies that you do not want to be transmitted in Cookie Pal.
4. Click OK to close the dialog box and store the options.

Netscape Navigator 3.x

1. Select "Network Preferences..." from the Options menu.
2. Select the Protocols tab of the dialog which appears.
3. To enable warning messages ensure that the "Accepting cookies" option is checked. To disable warning messages ensure that this option is not checked.
4. Click OK to close the dialog box and store the options

Opera 4.x and 5.x

1. Select "Preferences..." from the File menu.
2. Click on the Privacy category in the list on the left hand side of the window.
3. To enable warning messages ensure that the two drop-down list boxes are set to "Display received cookies" and "Display third-party cookies" respectively. To disable warning messages, ensure that these are set to "Automatically accept all cookies" and "Accept from any servers".
4. Click OK to close the dialog box and store the options.
   

If you have a sound card installed in your system you may want to select this option. Normally when Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer 3.0 display a cookie alert message you will hear a sound as the message box is displayed. When Cookie Pal intercepts the message box it cannot prevent the sound from being played at that time.

To disable the sound permanently follow these steps:

1. If the main Cookie Pal window is already displayed, then go to step 4.
2. Right click on the Cookie Pal icon in the taskbar tray.
3. Select Show from the menu which appears to display the main Cookie Pal window.
4. Click on the "Sounds" tab with the left mouse button.
5. Click on "Disable standard alert sound" so that a check is displayed next to the option.

You can also select alternate sounds to be played when cookies are accepted or rejected on the Sounds tab of the Cookie Pal window, if you like.