Browser Hygiene: The Importance of Clearing Cache and Cookies

You use a browser every day to check your email, look at Facebook, do some banking, maybe buy something, and of course, use your VR account. Your browser tends to hold onto information, and over time it could cause problems with logging in or bringing up websites. It’s always a good idea to clear out the cache, or browser history, and clear cookies on a regular basis. The drawback to this is that your saved usernames and passwords will be deleted and you’ll need to re-enter them. But on the plus side, your privacy is more secure and your browser will work better.
 
What are cookies?
They’re a small piece of data from a website and stored in your browser while you’re on a website. Every time you pull up that same website, the browser sends the cookie back to the website with all the info from the last visit.

Cookies can be helpful, storing your username or preferences for a particular website. Sometimes the cookies are used to track your visit to websites so that businesses can show you ads online.

Browsers keep cookies until they expire, which could be when you log out of an account, or for years, as is the case for tracking cookies.

Browser cache is usually overwritten when you reach a certain amount, but will store information about your browsing history until you clear it.

To get the most out of your VR account, we recommend clearing the cache and cookies on your browser often. If you’re having a tough time logging in, try clearing your cookies. If your account isn’t loading correctly, you aren’t seeing what you expect, or there’s an error, try clearing the cache to make sure you’re seeing the latest info. And it’s usually better to just do both at the same time to eliminate any issues. We recommend using latest version of Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer or Firefox for your VR account.

Most browsers work in a similar way, but here are the major browsers and how to clear cache and delete cookies for them. And it’s best practice to run the latest version of your favorite browser, keeping it updated helps pages load better and gives you more security.
 
Chrome

Delete all your data (browser history)
 
1. Click the Chrome menu  on the browser toolbar.
2. Select Tools.
3. Select Clear browsing data.
4. In the dialog that appears, select the checkboxes for the types of information that you want to remove.
5. Use the menu at the top to select the amount of data that you want to delete. Select beginning of time to delete everything.
6. Click Clear browsing data.

Adjust cookie and site data permissions
 
1. Click the Chrome menu  on the browser toolbar.
2. Select Settings.
3. Click Show advanced settings.
4. In the "Privacy" section, click the Content settings button.
5. In the "Cookies" section, you can change the following cookies settings:
Click All cookies and site data to open the Cookies and site data dialog.
    ◦    To delete all cookies, click Remove all at the bottom of the dialog.
    ◦    To delete a specific cookie, hover over the site that issued the cookie with your mouse, then click the X that appears on the right corner.
6. You can also choose to remove all cookies created during a specific time period, using the Clear Browsing Data dialog.
 
If you want Google Chrome to automatically delete cookies when you close all your browser windows, select the "Keep local data only until I quit my browser" checkbox in the Content Settings dialog. You can also make exceptions so that specific sites’ cookies are deleted whenever you close your browser.
 
 
Safari

Empty the cache
1. Open Safari if it is not already open.
2. Choose Safari > Empty Cache, and then click Empty.
3. Reload the current page
4. While viewing a webpage using Safari, choose View > Reload Page, or click the Reload icon (curved arrow) in the Safari address field.
 
Reloading a page always shows you the latest version of the page, bypassing the cache.
Delete cookies
Open Safari if it is not already open.
1. Choose Safari > Preferences, and then click Privacy.
2. Click Details.
3. Select one or more websites that stores cookies, and then click Remove or Remove All.
4. When you finish removing websites, click Done.


Internet Explorer

Clear cache: Open Internet Explorer 11.
1. On the very right-hand side of the browser, click on the gear icon, also called the Tools icon, followed by Safety, and finally Delete browsing history...
2. Note: If you have the Menu bar enabled, you can instead click Tools and then Delete browsing history....
3. In the Delete Browsing History window that appears, uncheck all options except the one labeled Temporary Internet files and website files.
4. Click the Delete button.
5. The Delete Browsing History window will disappear and you may notice your mouse icon go busy for a few moments.
6. As soon as your cursor returns to normal, or you notice the "fished deleting" message at the bottom of the screen, consider your temporary Internet files deleted.
Older Internet Explorer versions, like IE10, IE9, and IE8, have similar procedures for clearing the cache.To delete cookies in the desktop
1. On the Start screen, tap or click Internet Explorer to open Internet Explorer.
2. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Settings.
(If you're using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, and then click Settings.)
3. Tap or click Options, and then, under History, tap or click Select.
4. Select the Cookies check box, and then tap or click Delete.
To delete cookies in the desktop
1. Open the desktop, and then tap or click the Internet Explorer icon on the taskbar.
2. Tap or click the Tools button , point to Safety, and then tap or click Delete browsing history.
3. Select the Cookies and website data check box, and then tap or click Delete.

 

Clear cache:
1. Open Mozilla Firefox 29.
2. Click the Menu button (the one with three horizontal lines) and then choose Options.
3. If Options is not listed in the menu, click Customize and drag Options from the list of Additional Tools and Features over to the Menu.
Note: If you're using the menu bar, choose Tools and then Options instead.

Firefox for Mac: On a Mac, choose Preferences from the Firefox menu and then continue as instructed below.
1. With the Options window now open, click the Privacy tab.
2. In the History area, click the clear your recent history link.
3. In the Clear Recent History window that appears, set the Time range to clear: to Everything.
4. In the list at the bottom of the window, uncheck everything except for Cache.
5. Note: If you wish to clear other kinds of stored data, feel free to check the appropriate boxes. They will be cleared with the cache in the next step.
6. Tip: Don't see anything to check? Click the button next to Details.
7. Click on the Clear Now button.
8. When the Clear Recent History window disappears, all of the files saved (cached) from your Internet browsing activities in Firefox will have been removed.
Older versions of Firefox, particularly Firefox 4 through Firefox 28, have fairly similar processes for clearing the cache.

To delete cookies for one site:
1. Click the menu button  and choose Preferences
2. Select the Privacy panel.
3. Set Firefox will: to Use custom settings for history.
4. Click Show Cookies.... The Cookies window will appear.
5. In the Search: field, type the name of the site whose cookies you want to remove. The cookies that match your search will be displayed.
6. Select the cookie(s) in the list to remove and click Remove Cookie.
    ◦ Select the first cookie and press Shift+End to select all the cookies in the list.
7. Close the Cookies window.

Delete all cookies
To delete all cookies stored on your computer:
1. On the menu bar, click on the History menu, and select Clear Recent History....
2. Set Time range to clear to Everything.
3. Click on the arrow next to Details to expand the list of history items.
4. Select Cookies and make sure that other items you want to keep are not selected.
5. Click Clear Now to clear the cookies and close the Clear Recent History window.
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