# Dialogs

This page describes some of the different dialog boxes in Opera.

Dialog | Appears
--- | ---
Start-up dialog | On start-up (See Start and Exit preferences)
Sessions | On the File menu
Delete private data | On the File menu
Customize toolbars | On the View menu
Links dialog | On the View menu
Manage bookmarks | On the Bookmarks menu
Manage contacts | On the Mail menu
Register Opera | On the Help menu
Download dialog | When downloading a file
Upload warning | When a form tries to steal a local file
Delete message | The first time you delete a mail
Cookie dialog | When receiving a cookie that needs attention
Certificate warning | When a server sends an invalid certificate

## Start-up dialog

The start-up dialog appears when you start Opera and lets you choose which pages you want to start with.

Tip: Try starting with no pages if you have problems starting Opera.

## Sessions

Say you have five Web pages open in Opera. You can save them to disk as a "session", then close all your windows, and then load the session file to get the pages back.

## Delete private data

This dialog helps you to delete information about your browsing activities, but be sure you know what you are doing.

Warning: After deleting private data you may have to re-enter various passwords, set up preferences on Web sites again, and type in full addresses in the Address field since auto-complete data is lost.

## Customize toolbars

This dialog shows you all the toolbar buttons available in Opera, so you can drag them to anywhere you want in the user interface.

If you have removed some buttons to conserve screen space, use this dialog to get them back.

## Manager dialogs

The Bookmark, Contact and Links managers are equivalents of the respective Hotlist panels, only here you have nice, large dialogs with easily accessible buttons.

Note in particular:

- Hold `Ctrl` and click the left mouse button to select multiple items
- in the Links dialog copies the link address as text to the clipboard

Learn more about the Hotlist

## Register Opera

After you have bought Opera, you will receive an e-mail with registration information. Enter this information in the registration dialog to complete the registration and remove the ad banner.

Learn more about registering Opera

## Download file

The download dialog appears when you download a file.

Click to open the file with Opera.

Click to choose a folder to save the file. After the file has been transferred, execute it by double-clicking in the Transfer panel.

Note: Use virus-protection software before executing downloaded files.

Learn more about file types

## Upload warning

Some sites offer file uploading as part of their service. Normally, you click and select which file you want to upload from your computer.

Warning: A form can be preset to upload private files from your computer. To prevent forms from stealing your files, Opera will always warn you if a filename is preset in an upload form.

## Delete message

When you deleted a message, it is not actually deleted, but moved to the Trash folder.

To get back a deleted message, open the Trash folder and click the Undelete button.

To delete a message permanently, delete it from the Trash folder. To delete all messages in Trash, right-click the Mail panel in Hotlist and select "Empty trash".

## Cookie dialog

A cookie is a small file that a Web site stores on your computer to remember things about you.

Cookies are intended for practical uses like Web site log-ins, preferences and shopping carts. However some servers (like ad servers) can abuse cookies to track your browsing habits.

When Opera displays a cookie dialog, accept the cookie if it seems well-intended. Otherwise refuse it.

Cookies trying to do illegal things like tracing your browsing across a national domain (like .no) will be automatically refused.

Learn more about privacy and cookies

## Certificate warning

Certificates are used to verify that a Web site is secure to use. Most of the time certificates are fully valid and you can proceed safely with your business.

If there is something questionable about a certificate, a warning dialog will be displayed. You may choose to proceed, but full security cannot be guaranteed at this point.

### Server certificate expired

Certificates like credit cards have an expiry date, and must be renewed on a regular basis by the people maintaining the site.

Accepting an expired certificate does not necessarily reduce security, however take into consideration which site you are visiting and how long since the certificate expired.

### Wrong certificate name

A certificate is issued by an authority for a single site to use, and sites cannot borrow certificates from each other as this invalidates the whole concept of certificates.

Accepting a certificate belonging to another site is not recommended.

### Certificate signer not found

Certificates are signed by an authority. For example, the secure version of the University of Oslo Web site is authorized by the Thawte organization.

If the signer of a certificate is not found in your list of authorities, you should not accept the certificate unless you have a confident relation with the people running the site.

Some certificates are self-signed, that is, signed by the people running the site, and not an authority. Trusting a self-signed certificate from for example your employer can be considered as safe.

If you know that the signer can be trusted, and you want all sites using this signer to be considered as safe, install the certificate to add the signer to your list of authorities.

Tip: To see your list of Authorities, click in Security preferences.

Learn more about security

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