(This probably belongs in the 'off-topic' forum, but (1) I usually don't go there and (2) this forum is top-heavy with computer types.)
Seems like every couple of days I have to fix my Google settings (the 'open search results in new tab" is a particular culprit), and I've seen other (presumably) cookie-related things go walk-about randomly. It doesn't appear to correlate to reboots or restarts of IE.
Does anyone know offhand where the control to hardset cookie permanance is hiding in IE8 (or elsewhere)? The few solutions I've found online only seem to be valid for IE7 or earlier, as they refer to options that don't appear to exist anymore.