Some Web sites store information in a small text file, called a cookie, on your hard disk.
Cookies contain your custom information. For example, if you inquire about a flight schedule at an airline's Web site, the site might create a cookie that contains your itinerary.
Only the information that you provide, or the choices you make while visiting a Web site, can be stored in a cookie. Allowing a Web site to create a cookie does not provide access to the rest of your computer.
Internet Explorer is set up to allow the creation of cookies; however, you can specify that you be prompted before a site puts a cookie on your hard disk, or prevent Internet Explorer from accepting any cookies.
You can specify different settings for different zones, by customizing security settings within each zone. For example, you may want to allow Web sites to create cookies if they are in your Trusted sites zone or Local intranet zone, prompt you before creating cookies if they are in your Internet zone, and never allow cookies if they are in your Restricted sites zone. See the Related Topic below for more information.