Inconsistent behavior with an extension reading Cookies on Windows Vista

My toolbar a.k.a. extension has to take different behavior depending on whether you are logged into our website or not. Pre-Vista, we were able to check the existence of the cookie without any problems. If you tried an action that required authentication without being logged in, the toolbar opened a dialog (which is a windows form with a web browser control) pointing to our authentication page. Once you logged in there, the toolbar continued on its merry way.

On Windows Vista, however, it doesn't quite work this way. Only after I physically navigate to the website and log in does the toolbar read the cookie correctly. Trying to authenticate "on-the-fly" by popping up the dialog does not result in a cookie being stored where the toolbar can seem to access it.

On a different thread, somebody said it is because a medium-integrity level application can not read the cookies set by protected Internet Explorer. If this is the case, then I can't understand how the toolbar can read the cookie correctly if set by physically navigating to the page and logging in, I would think it could not read these cookies at all.

It was suggested that I try adding my website as a safe zone inside of IE, which does some goofy things on Vista. Most notably, all actions for my website have to be inside their own window. If I navigate to the website, then try to go to a different URL, IE forces a new window to open. Also, when the dialog box is launched by the toolbar when trying to do something requiring authentication without being logged in, the form pops up but the contents are loaded in the "safe" window, resulting in quite the fiasco.

Accessing a Vista machine as the actual "Administrator" or turning off the protective services under User Accounts results in the toolbar behaving exactly as it does on other operating systems.

One final point, when I log into the website and check the "Remember Me" box, for some reason I can't find the cookie on the computer anywhere. According to what I've read it should be \Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies.

Any thoughts on what I can or should do

Answer this question

Inconsistent behavior with an extension reading Cookies on Windows Vista

nrf
For the record, the Cookies I wanted were actually put in the "Low" subfolder. In order to make my code cross-platform, I simply did a "does folder exist" test for the "Low" folder, and if it existed I checkec for my cookie there. Otherwise, I simply searched whatever was returned by the SpecialFolder for cookies. If there is a better way built in to Vista, by all means please let me know.
Inconsistent behavior with an extension reading Cookies on Windows Vista

Answer this question