A couple of VERY SIMPLE things you might check in IE:

If you don't see the "File Edit View Favorites Tools Help" line on the top tool bar you can right click on any blank space and you should get a dropdown list of toolbars. You can click to put a check by "Menu Bar" if you want to see it. If you don't want it there, then don't bother, since you can get most of the same choices by clicking the "little gear" at the right end of the bar where the URL shows.

Click Tools on the menu and Internet Options on the drop down, or click the gear and then Internet Options on the drop down that you get there. EITHER way works.

On the Internet Options window, it should open with the "General" tab up. There will be a box at the top where you can enter a home page (or several home tabs), and just below that there will be a section called "Browsing History."

CHECK #1: In the Browsing History section there is a little square box labelled "Delete browsing history on exit." IF THERE IS A CHECK in the box, most of what the browser can remember will be deleted when you close IE. This MAY remove information about which threads you've looked at so that the next time you open IE at mudcat they won't show as "visited."

While this selection says it will clear cookies and history, it doesn't necessarily clear everything. Cookies, in particular, can be "permanent," "temporary," or can have an "expiration date." Temporary cookies will mostly be deleted. Permanent cookies usually won't. What happens to others can be variable, whether or not the "delete history" box is checked.

CHECK #2: On the same Internet Options window, at the Privacy tab, there should be a button marked "Sites." Click the Sites button, and you'll get a box where you can enter the name of a site and either Block or Allow that site. If you put mudcat.org in the box and click Allow, mudcat.org will appear in the list below with the notation "always allow."

Being in the always allow list permits mudcat to put "permanent" and/or "timed expiration" cookies on your computer, and these usually will NOT DISAPPEAR even if the "Delete History" box is checked.

Sites that are NOT listed to "always allow" may only give you a temporary cookie that is supposed to disappear as soon as you leave the site.

I haven't checked recently, but mudcat used to appear to give you a permanent "login" cookie, but also gave you an additional "session cookie" each time you entered the site. The most recent session cookie is what your browser probably looks at to see which threads you've opened, although there are a couple of ways it can be done. If your session cookies disappear, the colors go with them.

John