Web Browser Wednesday
Cookies in web browsers are an easy way for sites to store authentication/login information, settings, and so much more. One of the things that some sites do for security or privacy purposes is force the cookies to expire after a period of time. Sometimes they expire after a day, a week, a year, or when you close your browser. If there was a way to edit the cookies you would be able to adjust the expiration date so that you didn’t run into that problem.
Oh, but wait, there is a way to edit your browser’s cookies! It’s actually rather easy to do in both Firefox and Opera, so today we’ll take a look at how to edit cookies.
–Opera–
One of the great things about Opera is that they give you a lot of control over the content and properties of a cookie. If you want to alter a cookie it is as simple as heading over to the Preferences and clicking a few buttons.
To change a cookie in Opera go to Tools -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Cookies -> Manage Cookies. Then find the cookie that you want to change, and click the Edit button. You’ll then be presented with a dialog where you can customize the expiration date or any other information contained within the cookie:
As you can see it is rather easy to do in Opera thanks to the built-in advanced editor that the browser comes equipped with.
–Firefox–
Firefox is only able to view your browser’s cookies out-of-the-box, but as expected there are a few extensions available to do the dirty work. My personal favorite is Add N Edit Cookies, which has a simple yet powerful interface for managing and creating cookies.
Once you get the extension installed here’s what you’ll have to do to edit the cookies:
- Go to Tools -> Cookie Editor, and then perform a search for the cookie you’re looking for. After you find the cookie you want select it and click the Edit button.
- Now you’ll be presented with all of the cookie’s properties that you can edit. To change the expiration date of the cookie fill in the New expiration date bubble located at the bottom of the properties window:
(Click to enlarge)
- Save your changes, and then close out of the cookie editor.
–Recap–
To sum things up, it is pretty easy to manipulate the cookies in your browser, provided that you have the right tools handy. Some of the websites I visit have the logins expire after a very short period of time or when I close the browser, and it can get rather annoying. By adjusting the dates on some of my cookies I can avoid having to login to many sites over and over again.
Tip: You just need to be careful because often times these short-lived cookies are for your own protection and privacy.
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Tags: CyberNotes, Firefox, Software, Customize, Firefox Extensions, Firefox Tweaks, How To, Opera, Screenshots, Settings
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Wow, that’s very clever. That’s a simple way to maintain your logins that I never would have thought of. Maybe I’ll try it, since Opera has the functionality out of the box.
You can do a lot with Opera cookies editor: set them enabled for certain sites only, reversely disable them for certain sites only, or when not matching criterias, keep them safe when recognition related etc… Complete settings.
In my opinion, Opera now is even better than Firefox.
And no extensions to deal with.
Better browsing speed almost.
Last thing: now supports all sites. More, ajaxian ones: Opera works perfect where other browsers fail ( no exception ).
Just don’t spend too much time customizing all of the cookies, because I accidentally cleared all of my browser data and wiped all of my cookies out. That erased all of my work.
Once Opera is able to get all of the Firefox-compatible sites working great I think it will be even more popular. I just wish more sites would test their stuff in Opera.
You can open the Cookies manager in Opera from the Advanced submenu in Tools menu. 2 clicks instead of 5 (not counting the clicks to close those dialogs )
Yep. Some sites have to test their stuff in Opera.
Google did it well. And many others. Seems now that Opera counts a bit more. What’s right cause it was an early precursor. In fact, many of the features that are popular in other browsers today were invented and pioneered by Opera a long time ago. Opera invented the precursor to tabs (in 1994), Page Zoom (1994), was the first browser to block pop-up ads (2000), first to add a Search field in the browser toolbar (2000), Sessions (1996), deleting private data (2000), Mouse Gestures (2000), User JavaScript (2005), BitTorrent support (2005), Widgets (2006), Speed Dial (2007), and much more.
I don’t use Opera because of its poor cooking handling and I think it is absurd to want to edit cookies. I want a browser, like Firefox, SeaMonkey or IE, that allows me to accept no third party cookies, asks me about all first party cookies and never accepts session cookies. IE and Fx can do this. I have all of ten permanent cookies on my computer and never have any session cookies. I never shut down my computers and shut down Fx rarely so I would not want to accept session cookies as those are essentially permanent. Opera, I use very little because of how extremely difficult it is to handle cookies as I want in Opera so I shut it down frequently out of frustration.
I say NO to ALL cookies evcept for a very few sites where I need them for login. Opera is incapable of learning when I say no to a cookie. It asks me again the next time I start Opera. Plus there is no box in Opera where I can check the box and then Opera would apply my cookie choice to all cookies at a specific site. I have to click “no” on 50-60 cookies at some sites, whereas, in Fx and SeaMonkey, I simply check the box to tell the browser to apply my initial decision on the first cookie offered at a site to all cookies at that site. I never see another cookie box at that site. Opera is unusable because of popping up so many cookies for me to click no to on a single site and then it not capable of remembering what I told it the next time I go to that site. Opera developers have no undestanding of cookies and have ruined what would be a great browser because they think, like Apple does, that everyone wants tons and tons of cookies.
Fx and IE learn and never ask again. Safari for Windows is by far the fastest browser, but it has an even worse cookie handling policy than does Opera which I didn’t think was possible until I tried it. So, I hardly use it because I cannot easily say NO to almost all cookies. Thus, I use Fx 1.5 as it allows me to specify no cookies from any sites other than originating and I use SeaMonkey which handles cookies like Fx 1.5. I had to alter Fx 2.0 to get it to handle cookies properly and it is a much poorer browser privacy wise than 1.5 so my default browser is Fx 1.5.
There are shortcuts all over the place in Opera! I didn’t even notice that one.
Actually Google is one of the biggest culprits of not providing Opera-compatible sites. Google Docs, Google Calendar, and more don’t always work properly.
So many services use cookies to make things easier I can’t imagine blocking all of the cookies. To each their own though.
@Mele
Don’t get angry and keep cool guy!
And I’ve never heard about beeing messed up by cookies in Opera.
Mind they don’t eat your brain!
@Ryan
You just cannot say that this way. Google is doing a lot. Though there is still to do, I admit. Depending of platforms, versions and settings encountered.