Computer Experts.............

Can someone help?

I cleaned up the hard drive on my desktop this afternoon, and now it won't display my county email messages. When I try to re-log on, I get a message that cookies are blocked and I need to unblock them to log on.

I have two books on Windows 7, and I can't find anything about blocking and unblocking cookies in either one.

Thanks in advance for any help.

If you cleaned up "temporary internet files", you probably blew away your cookies. Cookies are often used to store authentication information, so you don't have to log back in each time you access a web site.

I assume you are accessing your county's email via some sort of web mail. If so, check your preferences on whichever web browser you're using and enable cookies. On Firefox, this will be under Edit->Preferences->Privacy & Security. Under IE, you'll find it under Tools->Internet Options->Privacy->Advanced.

Of course, you'll still need to log into your county's mail system. Hopefully you still remember your password.

Found this in the HELP section:

Block or allow cookies

Internet Explorer provides many different ways to control the cookies that are stored on your computer. You can block or allow all cookies or you can choose the specific sites that you'll accept cookies from. When you make these sorts of changes, the cookies that are already stored on your computer will not be affected. For that reason, you might want to delete the cookies already stored on your computer before following the steps below. See Cookies: frequently asked questions for more information.

Show contentHide content Block or allow all cookies
Click to open Internet Explorer.

Click the Tools button, and then click Internet Options.

Click the Privacy tab, and then, under Settings, move the slider to the top to block all cookies or to the bottom to allow all cookies, and then click OK.

Blocking cookies might prevent some webpages from displaying correctly.

Show contentHide content Block or allow cookies based on their type
Rather than picking specific websites to block or allow, you can specify general types of cookies that are acceptable. For example, you can choose to allow cookies from websites that have privacy policies or to block those from websites that store personal information without your consent. For more information about the various types of cookies, see Cookies: frequently asked questions.

Click to open Internet Explorer.

Click the Tools button, and then click Internet Options.

Click the Privacy tab, move the slider to the level of privacy that you want to set, and then click OK.

As you move the slider, Internet Explorer provides a description of the types of cookies that are blocked or allowed at that privacy level.

Show contentHide content Block or allow cookies from specific websites
Click to open Internet Explorer.

Click the Tools button, and then click Internet Options.

Click the Privacy tab, and then move the slider to a position between the top and bottom so you are not blocking or allowing all cookies.

Click Sites.

In the Address of website box, type a website address, and then click Block or Allow.

As you type, a list of webpages that you have already visited will be displayed. You can click an item in the list and it will be displayed in the Address of website box.

Repeat step 5 for each website you want to block or allow. When you are finished, click OK.

Move the slider back to the position it was originally in, and then click OK.

I did a system restore back to a day in June. That seemed to fix it.

Thanks for the responses.

Uh-oh.