How to Find Deleted Cookies
Computer cookies are small files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They contain a unique ID tag that allows the website to recognize your computer the next time you visit it. Some computer users like to delete these cookies periodically due to security concerns. Once they have been deleted, they are a bit harder to get back, but it's not impossible.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Click the Start button on your Windows screen and type "system restore" in the search bar. Click on the System Restore link that comes up. Depending on your security settings, you may have to click "allow" for the application to start.
-
2
Decide on the date to which you would like your system restored. If the cookies you are trying to find were on your computer a couple of days before, set the date to restore to sometime the week before. If you are looking for cookies that were on your computer several months ago, you can have your computer restored to a previous month.
If you don't know the date you would like to restore your computer to, you can select "recommended restore" and click next. This will restore your computer to the date of the last Windows update.
-
-
3
Use the Windows search to look for index.dat files if the system restore method does not work or is not allowed. Once you find all index.dat files, you will need a special software in order to read them since they are not text files. You can easily find a free program to read these files by doing an Internet search for "index.dat reader".
Once you can read these files, you can look though the cookies that have been deleted.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Check your anti-virus software to make sure that your computer was clean on the date to which you want to restore it. You don't want to restore your computer to a date that your computer had a virus.
