How To Clear Cookies On My Dell Laptop

You can clear your cookies on your Windows 10 computer to free up space and remove the browser activity from your hard drive.
Cookies are the saved files your browser makes as you visit websites to remember information and load quicker.
Deleting cookies removes them from your browser history and from your hard drive.
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The personal ads you see have started getting a little too personal, and it's making you uncomfortable.

You're worried about what someone might see over your shoulder if you type certain letters into your address bar and it autocompletes.

Or maybe you just played too many games on your browser and the saves are bloating your hard drive .

Different browsers store their own cookies, so if you use multiple browsers you'll need to do this multiple times. Alternatively, you may only need to clear the cookies from one browser.

There are many reasons you might want to get rid of cookies. Here's how.

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Windows 10 (From $139.99 at Best Buy)

How to clear cookies on your Windows 10 computer using Microsoft Edge

1. Microsoft Edge is the pre-installed browser that comes with Windows 10, and is Microsoft's updated version of what used to be Internet Explorer. You can open it by searching "Edge" in the start menu, pressing the Windows logo on your keyboard, or clicking the blue "e" symbol at the bottom-left of your screen.

2. With Edge open, click on the three horizontal dots at the top-right of the screen. Select "Settings" from the dropdown menu.

3. Select the "Privacy and security" tab. Then select "Choose what to clear."

A suggested thorough scrubbing. The second checkbox is the important one.

4. This will lead to a series of checkboxes about what you want to clear. Cookies will be filled in by default, but you can clear as many or as few of these as you'd like. You can also set Edge to clear these by default.

5. Select "Clear" to erase the information you've selected.

Select "Clear" to clear whichever cookies you selected.

The steps for other browsers are very similar.

How to clear cookies on your Windows 10 computer using Google Chrome

1. Open Google Chrome .

2. Press the three vertical dots at the top-right corner of your window, and select "Settings."

3. Select "Advanced" from the menu on the left.

4. "Clear browsing data" will be at the bottom of the "Privacy and Security" section. Click it, and check off the boxes that are relevant to your needs.

Advance options has been opened, revealing the "Privacy and Security" section.

How to clear cookies on your Windows 10 using Mozilla Firefox

1. Open Mozilla Firefox.

2. Press the three horizontal bars at the top-right of the window, and select "Options."

3. Select "Privacy & Security" from the menu on the left, and then find "Clear Data" from this menu.

4. Check off the boxes that are relevant to your needs and then select "Clear."

The "Clear Data" option is found in a very similar way to Chrome.

There are many other browsers not listed here, like Opera, that also store cookies. Usually they will follow a very similar set of steps to those listed here. A general rule of thumb is to find your browser's security options and look through them.

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Ross James is a freelance writer for Business Insider.