Clearing Cache? Clear Cookies? - Why? Important?

I have always wondered whether or not it is important to clear caches and cookies? If so, how often should one clear cache and cookies.

Also, what is the difference between cache and cookies? Is one more important than the other?

Thank you!

 

A brief description, a cookie is a piece of software that your visited sites
place on your computer,it's purpose is to monitor your surfing habits.

Like how many times you visit their sites,if it's a search engine then it could
be used to alter what ads you receive,only target you with the ads
“it” wants you to see, and not what you may have requested, or needed.

Delete these at every shut down it's of no use to you.

There's two types of cache.

One is held in the ram, , or a hard drive ram and cpu , it help the computer speed up things in the background, it will be deleted at close down.

The other type of cache is held on your hard drive where your browser has saved
information on previous visited web pages. Retaining this cache may very slightly improve the speed of the browser finding previous copies of visited web pages.

A free program called ccleaner will do the job.

 

Thank you for such a wonderful answer @something back ! You help me to understand the differences between cache and cookie.

 

Ccleaner is a great program to download. I had a very old computer that I used ccleaner on. It took a few hours to clean up the whole system but once it was done my computer was so much faster and didn't freeze all the time. I still run ccleaner on my computer every so often to clean it up. I would recommend it for everyone to do once in a while.

 

Both are important for the functioning of your device. However, it's also good to clear them out now and again. The cache contains temporary files which help to maximize performance whereas cookies are used to log you in to websites and to track your activities. These files can build up over time, gradually slowing your device down until it eventually slows down to a crawl. Cookies can also be used to spy on your internet activities.

 

Cookies help companies track what webpages you've visited. That's why sometimes when you are on the computer an ad for something you just looked at will pop up. Or I've gotten emails with discount codes after shopping online. Erasing cookies helps prevent this. I like to do it every once in a while otherwise I feel like my computer is running slow. I like ccleaner as a program to help clean up my computer.

 

I am also a huge fan of CCleaner. It's one of the best programs out there that will do all this for you rather than having to do it all yourself manually. It's an excellent program which can speed your computer up and erase temporary files and cookies with just a few clicks of the mouse. It's also free.