The JSON approach works, on ie 7 you need json2.js, with it it works perfectly and despite the one comment saying otherwise there is localStorage on it. it really seems like the best solution with the least hassle. Of course one could write scripts to do essentially the same thing as json2 does but there is little point in that.
at least with the following version string there is localStorage, but as said you need to include json2.js because that isn't included by the browser itself:
4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/5.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; BRI/2; NP06; .NET4.0C; .NET4.0E; Zune 4.7)
(I would have made this a comment on the reply, but can't).
