Find the Cookies Folder in Vista

Q: Where can I find the Cookies folder in Windows Vista? When I ran Windows XP, I put a shortcut to the Cookies folder on my desktop. When I went to a Web site, I could quickly see how many cookies a site was putting on my computer and delete them if I wanted to. I've tried searching in Vista but haven't had much luck. Please help!—Walter Nowak

A: To find just about anything in Vista, you simply start typing its name at the Start menu. When you type cookies, it points you to C:\Users\username\cookies—great! Great, that is, until you click on the link and get an "Access Denied" slap in the face. In actual fact, that path is just a kind of pointer. The cookies are stored in a completely different location.

Open Windows Explorer, press F10 to see the menu, and choose Tools | Folder Options. Click the View tab. Find the option to Show hidden files and folders and check it. Find Hide protected operating system files and uncheck it (Vista will gripe). Now you can navigate to the actual location, which is twofold: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies and C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies\Low.

If you like, you can put shortcuts to these on the desktop or elsewhere—just right-drag the folder, let go, and choose Create shortcut(s) here. These shortcuts will work even if you change the Windows Explorer options described above back to their default values.