Cookie.txt file revisited!

>Hi! Folks! I have always set Firefox to remove cookies when closing
>the prog. Recently AVG kept telling me that I had 32 items of spyware.
>Even after deleting, the same ones and number appeared each time. I
>noticed that they were always in Do***ents and settings..... Firefox
>..profiles...cookie.text. 

>When I read it there was seeming every site I had ever visited since
>installing Firefox. (quite a long time) I deleted this file and all
>seems well and no recurrence of the same 32 cookies every anti malware
>scan.

>What is with this file why is all the info stored there, when the
>prog. is set to zap cookies each shutdown. Firefox 2.0.0.14

>Thanks. Don't be too harsh! with this old guy if the explanation is
>extremely simple. 

>Lew

Hi! Once again! No replies to my previous post regarding cookie.txt
file. 

I was wondering:-

Whether it was  stupid question unworthy of comment.

No one else has encountered a rather large file noting all the sites
previously visited which in my case seemed to harbour spyware, even
though the program is set to delete previous activity on shutdown.

No one knows anything about this file. (hardly likely)

What purpose is the file? The program operates perfectly after the
file was deleted so would presume that the data contained was
unnecessary.

Thanks.

Lew