Specifications

the Drawing toolbar. Now the No Shad-
ow option is enabled; click it. Finally,
press the Delete key to delete the object
handles. You’re back from the shadows
again!
Find the Cookies Folder in Vista
Q
Where can I fi nd 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 differ-
ent 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 operat-
ing system fi les 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\user-
name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Win-
dows\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 Win-
dows Explorer options described above
back to their default values.
Clean Install Using Vista Upgrade
Q
I currently run Microsoft Win-
dows 2000 Professional on a
custom-built PC, so I have the
Win 2000 operating system CD.
I am planning to buy Windows Vista Ulti-
mate upgrade edition and install it on a
new PC that I’ll be building.
Because I’ll be purchasing the upgrade
edition of Vista, I won’t be able to com-
pletely wipe my hard drive using a third-
party product and then install the upgrade,
since there would be no evidence on the hard
drive that I actually had Windows 2000
installed previously. I typically clean the
drive and then do a full OS reinstall about
twice a year. How well does the “clean
install” really clean the hard drive prior to
installing the OS?—George Chimich
A
Some past Windows versions have
let you prove upgrade-readiness
by inserting the CD of the previous
OS during the install process. Vista doesn’t.
Microsoft specifi cally says: Windows Vista
does not check upgrade compliance. There-
fore, you cannot use an upgrade key to per-
form a clean installation of Windows Vista.
Microsoft’s solutions are (1) first install a
compliant Windows version such as 2000,
XP, or Vista, or (2) purchase a full license.
So, no problem! Just run through
your usual full drive-wipe and reinstall
of Windows 2000, and then upgrade to
Vista. Hang onto that Windows 2000 CD
if you want to continue this semiannual
reinstallation practice.
“Copy Only Subtotals in Excel”
Revisited
There’s a much quicker and easier solu-
tion to “Copy Only Subtotals in Excel”
(February 6, 2007). With the subtotals dis-
played at the level you want to copy, select
the entire area and then use Edit | Go To |
Special and click the radio button Visible
cells only. Now only the visible cells are
selected (note the dashed boxes around
each of the subtotal rows instead of the
entire selection). Then proceed as nor-
mal: Press Ctrl-C to copy to the clipboard,
move to your destination cells, and press
Ctrl-V.—Jim McMichael
A
This is just one out of the dozens
of letters in response to “Copy
Only Subtotals in Excel.” I used a
combination of the built-in Subtotal fea-
ture and Excel’s Advanced Filter, which
many readers felt was too complex. Most
of them suggested the method described
above, but actually there’s an even simpler
way to select only visible cells when some
cells are hidden because of a fi lter or sub-
total being active.
Select Tools | Customize from the menu
and click on the Commands tab. Select
Edit in the left-hand list and scroll down
the right-hand list until you fi nd the item
Select Visible Cells. Drag that item onto
one of your toolbars. Now, whenever you
need to copy only the cells that are visible
within the highlighted region, you can
just click this button and then press Ctrl-
C. Still too much work? Okay, how about
this one? Highlight the region, press Alt-;
(semicolon) and then Ctrl-C. That’s about
as simple as anything can get!
NEED ANSWERS? PC Magazine’s software
expert, Neil J. Rubenking, tackles your
toughest software and Internet prob-
lems. Send your questions to askneil@
ziffdavis.com.
NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 107
HIDDEN COOKIES The obvious folder location for cookies in Windows Vista is wrong—
they’re actually stored deep in a path of hidden folders.