clearing cookies & temp. files - necessary?

[Richard93102]

Every time I do a cleanup, I lose information, such as the settings of my Google preferences, log-in names and passwords etc.
Can I clean my PC (Windows XP) without losing that info, website icons etc?
I have Spybot S & D, Ad-Aware, Norton Internet Security 2005, HiJackThis, and BitDefender.
Surely with all that protection I shouldn't need to clear cookies, temporary internet files and history too often?
Thanks for any help,
Richard

[Gecko]

When you do your clean up just don't clear the cookies that is where all that information is held.