[ash1023]

Ever since moving to my university i have had the worst problem with cookies. It's to the point where i use my ad-aware and avg scanner around 3 times a day and get around 80 infections each time.
A friend of mine recommended that i put my computer in saftey mode and run the scanners. It actually seems to be a lot worse today.
I know that i could simply clear my cookies, but that doesn't help.
And i really like certain websites to keep my login information. Is there anything further I can do to fix this?

thank you very much!

edit: computer specs
sony vaio VGN-C290
73.7 gb free of 142 gb
windows vista

im not really sure what else to add here...

[Elvandil]

People tend to overestimate the danger from "tracking" cookies for the most part. I, for one, appreciate being able to return to a site and have my information remembered so that I don't have to start fresh every time.

You can turn off cookies, but some sites won't let you enter without them, and it would be impossible to sign in to others.

Generally speaking, cookies are the price we pay for convenience. As far as any danger they pose, it is certainly at the bottom of the scale. Though theoretically, someone could take fragments of information from each cookie and construct a profile of the user, this is highly unlikely, especially if you clean them even occasionally when you do routine maintenance.

Another thing to do is to set your cookie preferences so that only the web site you are visiting can leave a permanent cookie and all others are "session-only".

I use a proxy called "CookieCop" that automatically blocks all cookies except those I allow. It tends to get annoying sometimes, but once all your commonly used cookies have been given permission, changing settings is less frequent. There are other such apps, too, like Foxy, Proxomitron, iRejectTrash, FreeProxy, Proximodo, eDexter, Wingate, and many others. Most allow filtering of ads and web sites as well as cookies. Take a look. Search for "proxy" on freeware sites, or "cookie manager".

[hewee]

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/uiuc/main-nf.htm

Look under Browser Configuration and you can set you cookies so you have better control.
I Firefox and the Exceptions list and have 100% control over my cookies. Only cookies that I have marked as allow or allow for session can set a cookie and all others are blocked by default and the block ones don't even get added to the list.
I use Firefox Extensions CookieCuller https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/82 that lets me mark the cooked I want to keep and then with a click I can clear all unprotected cookies and CookieSafe https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2497 that lets me add newer cookies or add them only for a session or as a temp cookie. I use the temp cookie a lot if a site will not work unless you let them set a cookie. Then I clear the cookie after I am done with CookieCuller before going to other sites so no tracking can go on.