How to Unblock Cookies on Your Computer

By Lynn Burbeck

Unblocking cookies on your computer is necessary for some websites--particularly those with shopping carts or log-in portals. Cookies are tracking devices that save bits of information regarding the websites you visit onto your computer. This allows your Web preferences, shopping cart contents and other personal information to be saved when you reopen the site at a later date. All Web browsers give users the opportunity to block or enable cookies as part of their privacy settings.

Internet Explorer

Step 1

Open your Internet Explorer browser and select the "Tools" option in the top menu bar.

Step 2

Click on "Internet Options" and choose the "Privacy" tab. This is where you can alter your privacy settings and choose whether or not to allow pop-up windows from appearing.

Step 3

Change the privacy settings by moving the slider and choosing a setting that suits your Internet privacy needs. You can choose to accept all cookies, only first person cookies or only first-person cookies with compact privacy policies.

Mozilla Firefox

Step 1

Open your Firefox web browser and click on "Tools" in the upper toolbar.

Step 2

Scroll down to "Options" and select the "Privacy" tab.

Step 3

Change the settings under the History heading so that Firefox uses custom settings for history. You will then have the ability to unblock all cookies or to accept only first-person cookies.

Apple Safari

Step 1

Open your Safari web browser and click on the Action Menu which is located in the upper right-hand side of the screen and looks like a gear.

Step 2

Click on "Preferences" and then on the "Security" icon on the top of the screen.

Step 3

Select whether you want to accept all cookies or only accept cookies from websites that you personally visit. This will block cookies from third-party sites and advertisers.

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