v1.29.3

April 2023 (Version 1.29.3, build 20231005.15)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.29.3. This is a hotfix of version 1.29.0.

A list of issues hotfixed can be found here.

v1.29.2

April 2023 (Version 1.29.2, build 20230523.19)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.29.2. This is a hotfix of version 1.29.0.

A list of issues hotfixed can be found here.

v1.29.1

April 2023 (Version 1.29.1, build 20230509.5)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.29.1. This is a hotfix of version 1.29.0.

A list of issues hotfixed can be found here.

v1.29.0

April 2023 (Version 1.29.0, build 20230428.1)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.29.0. A detailed list of all issues closed for this release can be found here. Continue reading below for information on major changes.

Moving to 64-bit for Windows in 1.30.0

Starting in version 1.30.0, Storage Explorer for Windows will be moving to 64-bit. This means that 1.29.0 will be the last 32-bit release of Storage Explorer for Windows. Therefore, if you are using a version of Windows which does not support 64-bit applications, you will need to upgrade to a version that does in order to continue using Storage Explorer.

macOS ARM64 Preview

The macOS ARM64 preview of Storage Explorer continues to remain available. You can download it here.

Removal of ADLS Gen1 Integration

As previously announced, all ADLS Gen1 functionality is now being removed from Storage Explorer. This change is being made in anticipation of ADLS Gen1 itself being retired in February 2024. For more information on ADLS Gen1's retirement, see the official announcement. For information on how to migrate from ADLS Gen1 to ADLS Gen2, see Migrate Azure Data Lake Storage from Gen1 to Gen2 by using the Azure portal.

In-App Preview Improvements

Various new features and changes have been made to in-app file previewing. As a reminder, to preview a file directly in Storage Explorer, select the file and then click on Preview in either the context menu or toolbar of the blob or file share explorer.

When previewing CSV files from your blob containers or file shares, a tabular based preview will now be used instead of a text based preview. Files with a .csv extension or a text/csv content type are supported. However, if you have previously added .csv to the text preview file extensions setting, then you will need to remove it in order to have CSV files previewed in the new tabular preview. The setting can be found at Settings > Services > Storage Accounts > Text Preview Extensions.

You can now preview PDF files from your blob containers or file shares.

When previewing JSON text files, you can now have the preview format the JSON for easier reading. To do so, right click in the preview and choose Format JSON. If you wish to restore the preview to its original state, right click in the preview and choose Restore JSON.

You can now choose to have double-clicking on files in the blob or file share explorers initiate a preview of the item instead of downloading and opening it in your system's default application. To enable this feature, go to Settings > Data Explorers > Open Operation.

Table Import & Export Improvements

Various options for importing and exporting data from your tables have been added. These options can be configured at the start of an import or export operation.

When importing data into your table, you now have the option to:

• Set what character is used as the delimiter when parsing the source CSV file (defaults to your system's regional list separator setting).
• Generate partition and row keys automatically for rows that are missing either value (generated keys will be GUIDs)
• Choose CSV columns that you want to skip.
• Change the names of columns.
• Infer data types from each value instead of asserting a data type for the entire column. The inferred or default type for each value will only be used if the value has no type annotation in the source file. This means CSV files can now be partially annotated; or in other words, you don't have to define type annotations for all values, and not all properties need a type annotation column.

When exporting, you now have the option to:

• Set what character is used as the delimiter when writing the CSV file (defaults to your system's regional list separator setting).
• Choose whether to export types.
• Choose whether to export partition and row keys.
• Choose whether to export timestamps.

Table Explorer Redesign

The table explorer has been redesigned. Among the many improvements, you'll find:

• The rendering performance has been significantly improved. If you've had problems with tables containing lots of properties/columns in the past, you should see a dramatic speed increase.
• Column order and size are now preserved on refresh and in between sessions.
• You can copy the values of selected rows. To do so, select the rows you wish to copy values from. Then right-click one of the selected rows and select Copy Rows in the context menu.
• You can also copy the values of cells in a selected column. To do so, select the rows you wish to copy values from. Then right-click one of the selected rows in the column you wish to copy and select Copy Cells in the context menu.

Account Management Panel Improvements

The account panel has received several improvements to make the management of your accounts, tenants, and subscriptions easier.

The filtering and un-filtering of tenants has been moved to a tenant configuration menu. This menu can be accessed by clicking on the gear next to each tenant. In this menu you can find the Un-filter action for tenants which are filtered out, and the Filter Out action for tenants which are not filtered out. This change also means that the tenant level checkboxes are now dedicated to selecting and deselecting all subscriptions.

You can also now hide subscriptions. To do so, hover over a subscription and click on the eye icon. To show a hidden subscription, go into the tenant configuration menu for the tenant the subscription is in, and then find and click on the subscription in the Hidden Subscriptions sub-menu.

Play in Browser

You can now quickly open and play video files from your blob containers or file shares in your default browser. To do so select a video file and then click Play in Browser in either the context menu or toolbar.

Blob Cold access tier

You can now set blob access tier to Cold in Storage Explorer. Cold is a new online tier that is optimized for storing data that is infrequently accessed or modified. To learn more about Cold tier, checkout the official documentation.

Control Listing Batch Size

You can now control the number of items that the blob, ADLS Gen2, and file share explorers list when a directory is opened, and each time Load More is clicked. Changing this setting can help reduce the number of times you need to click Load More to see all items in a directory. To change this setting, go to Settings > Data Explorers > Load Batch Size.

Clone To Different Directory

When cloning a file in a blob container or file share, you can now choose to clone it to a different directory. To do so, select the file you want to clone and then click on Clone in the context menu or toolbar. Then, in the new name text input, modify the portion of the full path before the file's name to point to the directory you want to clone the file to.

Cross Storage Account Clone/Copy and Rehydrate

In Storage Explorer 1.22.0, the ability to clone and rehydrate a blob was added. This allowed you to clone an archived blob to a non-archived tier without having to rehydrate the source blob. In 1.24.0, this feature was further improved by letting you clone the blob to a different container in the same storage account. In 1.29.0, you can now clone the blob to a container in a different storage account.

Performing a clone and rehydrate across storage accounts is different from clone and rehydrate in the same storage account. Instead of using Clone and Rehydrate in the context menu, you will need to Copy the blob and then Paste it into the desired container in a different storage account. The clone and rehydrate process will then begin.

You can also now use Copy and Paste to initiate a clone and rehydrate within the same container or storage account, or you can continue using Clone and Rehydrate in the context menu.

Move and Rename in File Shares

You can now Move and Rename files and folders in file shares. Both operations make use of server side APIs to perform the operation. Both move and rename can be found in the context menu or toolbar.

New SAS Generation Parameters

Additional SAS generation parameters have been added. These include:

• IP address range
• Encryption scope
• Cache control
• Content disposition
• Content encoding
• Content language
• Content type
• Version
• API version

All of the new parameters can be found in the Optional Parameters section of the SAS generation dialog.

New Columns in File Share Explorer

Columns for file ID, creation time, and last write time, have been added to the file share explorer.

Tree View Context Menu Separators and Reordering

The context menus for items in the tree view now have separators between different groups of actions. The order of some items have also been changed to improve readability and usability.

Tree View Search Filter Persistence

The selected resource types for tree view search are now persisted between sessions.

AzCopy 10.18.1

Storage Explorer is now using AzCopy 10.18.1 for Blob, File Share, and Disk transfers.

v1.28.1

February 2023 (Version 1.28.1, build 20230309.1)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.28.1. This is a hotfix of version 1.28.0.

A list of issues hotfixed can be found here.

v1.28.0

February 2023 (Version 1.28.0, build 20230214.5. Mac arm64 build 20230214.4)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.28.0. A detailed list of all issues closed for this release can be found here. Continue reading below for information on major changes.

macOS ARM64 Preview

Storage Explorer for macOS ARM64 (Apple silicon) is now available for preview. All binaries and executables other than AzCopy now natively target ARM64. This greatly reduces the amount of emulation used to run Storage Explorer, and should lead to better performance and battery life.

We encourage those on Apple silicon Macs to try the preview and share your feedback. We will be working towards the GA of Storage Explorer for macOS ARM64 in the near future, and all feedback helps towards this goal. You can download the preview here.

New Electron Version & Windows 7/8/8.1 Support

Storage Explorer is now using Electron 22. This version of Electron brings various improvements and bug fixes. This change also means that this will be the last version of Storage Explorer to support Windows 7/8/8.1. This is aligned with the end of support for Windows 7 ESU, and Windows 8.1 extended support, on January 10th, 2023.

Text Preview Improvements

Additional content-types have been added to the built in list of content-types which can be text previewed. These include:

• text/xml
• application/xml
• application/json

As with previous versions of Storage Explorer, if text preview is not enabled for a file you wish to preview, you can go to Settings > Services > Storage Accounts > Text preview extensions, and add the file's extension to the list.

Text preview also now supports previewing files of any size. However, only the first 10MB of the file will be previewed. When this happens, a status bar message will appear at the top of the preview tab to inform you that the file was too large to preview in its entirety.

If you wish to preview the entire file, you can download it and then open it in your default text editor.

Finally, you can also now use Ctrl/Cmd+F to search for text during text preview.

SAS Expiration Warnings

When viewing data which is authenticated with a SAS token, Storage Explorer will now warn you if the SAS token is about to expire. The warning will appear at the top of the data explorer.

Additionally, when the SAS token does expire, a message informing you that it has expired will be displayed.

Trust File Extension During Open

Storage Explorer allows you to quickly download blobs and files and then open them in their default application via double-click or the context menu. However, Storage Explorer only trusts a certain set of file extensions by default, and when trying to open a file with an un-trusted extension, Storage Explorer asks you to confirm that you want to open it. While there is a setting to add additional file extensions to the trusted list, this can be tedious. To make trusting file extensions easier, there is now a checkbox in the confirmation dialog that will add the file extension to the trusted list for you.

Auto Delete AzCopy Logs

There is now a setting to automatically delete AzCopy logs for transfers which were successful. Successful transfers are transfers which have no failed or skipped items. The logs will be immediately deleted once the transfer has finished. This setting can be found in Settings > Transfers > AzCopy > Auto Delete Successful Transfer Logs.

Copy Between Blob Containers and File Shares

You can now copy blobs from a blob container to a file share and vice versa. Note that due to the differences between blobs and file shares, some properties will be lost when performing cross-service copies. For example, blob tags will not be preserved when copying blobs to a file share, and SMB information will not be preserved when copying files to a blob container.

Filter by Prefix in ADLS Gen2 Blob Containers

You can now filter by prefix in your ADLS Gen2 blob containers. The filter by prefix text box can be found next to the address bar.

Sub-Directory Prefix Search in File Shares

When filtering by prefix in a file share, you can now include /s in the prefix. The inclusion of one or more /s in the prefix will result in filtering the sub-directory specified by the portion of prefix prior to the last /, by only files and folders whose name start with the portion of prefix after the last /.

Multi Blob Download When Filtering by Tags

When filtering blobs by tags you can now download multiple blobs at once. Simply select the blobs you wish to download, and then click on Download in either the context menu or toolbar of the blob container data explorer.

Copy Tables with Azure AD Credentials

You can now copy and paste tables exclusively with Azure AD credentials. Previously, you could only copy and paste tables if you had a SAS token or account keys.

Preserving of Blob Tags During Clone

Storage Explorer now preserves blob tags when cloning blobs. To clone a blob, select the blob and then click on Clone in either the context menu or toolbar of the blob container data explorer.

Lease Operations on ADLS Gen2 Folders

You can now lease and break leases on ADLS Gen2 folders. To lease or break a lease on a folder, select the folder and then click on Acquire Lease or Break Lease in either the context menu or toolbar of the blob container data explorer.

ADLS Gen2 Soft Delete Feature Flag Removed

Now that soft delete has reached GA for ADLS Gen2 blob containers, the ADLS Gen2 soft delete feature flag has been removed from settings. All soft delete related features are available by default for ADLS Gen2 blob containers.

v1.27.2

December 2022 (Version 1.27.2, build 20230123.2)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.27.2. This is a hotfix of version 1.27.0. A list of issues hotfixed can be found here.

A list of all issues closed for version 1.27.0 can be found here.

v1.27.1

December 2022 (Version 1.27.1, build 20221220.2)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.27.1. This is a hotfix of version 1.27.0. A list of issues hotfixed can be found here.

A list of all issues closed for version 1.27.0 can be found here.

v1.27.0

December 2022 (Version 1.27.0, build 20221201.1)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.27.0. A detailed list of all issues closed for this release can be found here. Continue reading below for information on major changes.

Download All

For blob containers and file shares, you can now choose to download all. The download all command downloads all items in the current directory. Therefore, if you download all in the root of a container, then you will download all items in that container. The Download All... command can be found in either the toolbar or context menu of the blob container and file share explorers.

File Preview Improvements

Following the addition of in-app file previewing in 1.26 we received lots of feedback on the feature. One of the most popular feedbacks were requests for the enabling of preview to also be based on content types. Therefore, preview will also now be enabled if the selected file has a content type which matches a variety of built content types.

The following content types are supported for text preview:

• text/calendar
• text/css
• text/csv
• text/html
• text/javascript
• text/plain

The following content types are supported for image preview:

• image/avif
• image/bmp
• image/gif
• image/vnd.microsoft.icon
• image/jpeg
• image/png
• image/svg+xml
• image/webp

We've also received feedback on wanting to be able to preview tabular data in a structured table preview. This enhancement is currently being investigated. If you have any other feedback regarding the in-app file previewing experience, please let us know.

Blob Statistics Improvements

Blob statistics has received two improvements in this release. First, statistics for snapshots, deleted blobs, and versions, are now displayed. Second, the cumulative sizes for each type of blob are now displayed in more human friendly formats

Rename Attachments & Quick Access Items

When using attachments and quick access, you can often end up with resources sitting side by side in the tree with similar names. To help you better find and organize your attached and quick access resources you can now change their display names.

For resources in Quick Access, right click and choose Rename....

For attached resources, right click and choose Rename Connection....

Settings UI Changes

As more and more settings have been added, it has become increasingly difficult to find settings, especially new ones. To help alleviate this problem the settings UI is now searchable via a search box at the top of settings UI.

The settings UI has also been reorganized into a single page so you don't have to click on the left side categories.

Default Download Directory Setting

You can now configure the default location Storage Explorer uses for downloads. To do so, go to Settings (gear on the left) > Transfers > Default Download Location.

Choose Architecture When Uploading Disks

When uploading VHDs you can now choose what architecture, x64 or ARM64, your disk is. This allows uploading disks for ARM64 Linux virtual machines. Learn more about ARM64 virtual machines here.

v1.26.1

October 2022 (Version 1.26.1, build 20221008.5)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.26.1. This is a hotfix of version 1.26.0. A list of issues hotfixed can be found here.

A list of all issues closed for version 1.26.0 can be found here. Continue reading below for information on major changes from version 1.26.0.