Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer version 1.39.1

Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer is a free, standalone application that streamlines how Azure Administrators interact with storage accounts. Whether you’re managing blobs, file shares, queues, or tables, this versatile tool brings consistency, speed, and clarity to every operation—far beyond what the Azure portal alone can provide.

Why Azure Storage Explorer Matters

Managing storage through the Azure portal is intuitive, but for heavy-duty or repetitive tasks, it falls short:

• Manual clicks become tedious when transferring hundreds of files.
• The web UI can feel sluggish on large containers.
• Scripting small tasks often requires context switching between CLI and portal.

Azure Storage Explorer fills these gaps by offering:

• A desktop client optimized for high-throughput transfers.
• A unified interface for all storage types.
• Built-in support for SAS tokens, Azure Active Directory, and emulator endpoints.

These capabilities translate into faster workflows and fewer mistakes.

Key Features and Advantages

• Unified Storage View across Blob Containers, File Shares, Queues, and Tables.
• High-Performance Data Transfers with parallel upload/download threads, drag-and-drop, and pause/resume support.
• Fine-Grained Access Control via Azure AD, service principals, or SAS tokens.
• Local Dev/Test Integration with Azurite and the legacy Storage Emulator.

Security and Compliance

Azure Storage Explorer adheres to Azure’s stringent security standards, ensuring your data remains protected at every stage:

• Data Encryption
  • All data in transit is secured via HTTPS/TLS.
  • Data at rest uses Azure Storage Service Encryption (AES-256).
• Authentication and Authorization
  • Native Azure Active Directory (AAD) integration for RBAC.
  • Support for service principals, managed identities, and SAS tokens.
  • Option to connect with access keys when needed.
• Network Security
  • Compatible with private endpoints to restrict traffic to your Virtual Network.
  • Honors storage account firewall rules and trusted Microsoft services only.
• Audit Logging and Monitoring
  • Leverage Azure Monitor’s diagnostic settings to capture Storage Explorer activity.
  • Integrate with Azure Sentinel or third-party SIEM tools for real-time alerts.
• Compliance Certifications
  • Inherits Azure Storage’s compliance portfolio, including ISO, SOC, GDPR, and HIPAA standards.

Quick Comparison: Portal vs. Storage Explorer

Capability	Azure Portal	Azure Storage Explorer
Bulk Upload/Download	Limited parallelism, manual UI	High-performance parallelism
Authentication Methods	Primarily Azure AD	Azure AD, SAS, connection strings, emulator
Local Emulator Support	Requires separate installation	Native support for Azurite and emulator
CLI/Scripting Integration	CLI or PowerShell separately	Built-in scripting via PowerShell snippets
Cross-Subscription Browsing	Tab per subscription	All subscriptions in one pane

Real-World Scenarios

1. Disaster Recovery Testing
   Quickly seed a secondary storage account from backups stored in local Azurite for non-production failover drills.
2. Mass Data Migration
   Move terabytes of logs or media assets between subscriptions without crafting custom AzCopy scripts.
3. Role-Based Troubleshooting
   Verify user permissions by connecting under different service principals, then audit and correct access policies on the fly.

Getting Started in Minutes

1. Download & Install
   Grab the latest MSI/DMG from Microsoft’s official download page.
2. Connect Your Account
   • Choose Azure AD for seamless single sign-on.
   • Or paste a SAS URL for granular, time-limited access.
3. Explore & Operate
   • Expand subscriptions and storage accounts in the left pane.
   • Drag files into blob containers or right-click tables to run C# or PowerShell snippets.
4. Automate Common Tasks
   • Record frequent operations as scripts.
   • Export and share connection profiles with your team for consistent setups.

Here you see the simple installation steps of Azure Storage Explorer:

Download Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer

Right click the file and run as Administrator.

This is for me only, so I clicked on Install for me only

Accept the agreement and click on Install

An old installation was detected on my machine, Setup will uninstall it before continuing.
Click on Next

Select your folder or keep it default and click on Next

Click on Next
When you don’t want a start Menu Folder mark the box on the left.

Click on Finish

Microsoft Azure storage Explorer.

Sign in with your Azure Account.

Select your Azure Environment and click on Next

Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer connected with your Azure Subscription.

 

Tips & Best Practices

• Use AzCopy integration for scripting large-scale migrations and include –recursive for deep folder copies.
• Leverage table filtering to preview query results before exporting datasets.
• Keep your Storage Explorer version up to date—the team delivers monthly enhancements and bug fixes.
• Store connection profiles in source control (encrypted) so every teammate uses the exact same environment.

Conclusion

Azure Storage Explorer transforms tedious, repetitive storage tasks into a seamless, high-speed experience. For any Azure Administrator juggling blobs, files, queues, or tables, it’s the go-to tool to boost productivity, ensure security, and tame your data sprawl.

Next Steps

• Download Azure Storage Explorer and connect a demo subscription today.
• Explore built-in script samples to automate your top five storage tasks.
• Join the Azure Storage community on GitHub to suggest features or report issues.

More information about Azure Storage Explorer on Microsoft Learn

In my previous post about NTFS permissions, I showed you how to list file or folder permissions that differ from those of their parent. Today, you'll learn how to use AccessChk, a tool from the Sysinternals suite, to query files, folders, shares, services, and other objects for their effective permissions.

The post AccessChk: View effective permissions on files and folders first appeared on 4sysops.

Cryptomator is a free, open-source solution that allows you to encrypt Dropbox and OneDrive using strong encryption that you control.

The post Encrypt Dropbox and OneDrive or with the free Cryptomator first appeared on 4sysops.

Reading NTFS permissions for files and folders on a Windows device to find misconfiguration can be a cumbersome and time-consuming task. Basically, there are two options for accomplishing the task. Either you can read NTFS permissions for every scanned object and analyze the results, or you can find misconfigured permissions and list only the differences. Let me show you how to do the latter with the help of AccessEnum, a GUI tool from the Sysinternals Suite.

The post Read NTFS permissions: View read, write, and deny access information with AccessEnum first appeared on 4sysops.

If you cannot delete a file or folder and the operation fails with the error message "This action can't be completed because the file is open in another program," some questions come up. Was is another program? How can it be identified? In this post, I will show you how to use Handle and Process Explorer, tools from the Sysinternals suite, to answer these questions.

The post Cannot delete a file or folder first appeared on 4sysops.

You’ve deployed an Intranet and you wish to support the promotion to the end user : the web browser is THE entry point for that. Assuming your company uses EDGE, let’s see which configurations you can push to end users by GPO or Intune.

What you can configure via GPO for Edge

• 1 : Show / Hide the Home button, and configure the link behind
• 2 : Add up to 3 Shortcut, including your intranet
• 3 : Enable or Disable Microsoft News

I guess Intune can also be used to configure EDGE for every users

How to configure Edge Home button via GPO

1.

Activate the GPO : Show Home button on toolbar (description)

Activer la gpo : Afficher le bouton Accueil sur la barre d’outils

2.

Disable the GPO : Set the new tab page as the home page (description)

Désactiver la GPO : Définir la page Nouvel onglet comme page d’accueil

3.

Activate and configure the GPO : Configure the home page URL , configure the link to the intranet !

Activer et configurer la GPO : Configurer l’URL de la page d’accueil, définir l’adresse de votre intranet

How to configure Edge icons on the personalized page via GPO

Activate the GPO : Set new tab page quick links (description)

Activer la GPO : Définir les liens rapides du nouvel onglet

Configure the value as following, set pinned to true to avoid user to remove the link. You can configure up to three links

One Link :

[{"url":"https://intranetLink.com","title":"Intranet Name","pinned":true}]

3 links :

[{"url":"https://intranetLink1.com","title":"Intranet Name","pinned":true}, {"url":"https://intranetLink2.com","title":"Intranet2 Name","pinned":true}, {"url":"https://intranetLink3.com","title":"Intranet3 Name","pinned":true} ] 

How to disable Edge News on the personalized page via GPO

Disable the GPO : Allow web content on New Tab page (description)

Désactiver la GPO : Autoriser le contenu de Microsoft News sur la page nouvel onglet

Wrap up

We have seen how to configure Edge to support your Intranet Promotion. Thank to my colleague Yves for his input

The post Configure EDGE to support your intranet appeared first on Collabmania.

Problématique :

Je rate parfois les rappels d’une réunion Teams. Notification perdue parmi toutes les notifications Windows.

Solution :

Un automatisme Power Automate qui m’envoie un message dans Teams 5min avant une réunion. Cela permet, de mon téléphone ou PC, de voir le rappel sans avoir Outlook ouvert.

Recette :

1. Un Power Automate qui se déclenche toutes les 5 minutes
2. Il récupère les meeting de ma journée
3. Compare l’heure actuelle à l’heure de début de chaque réunion
   • Si l’heure de début est dans moins de 5min, alors envoie de message via Teams à l’utilisateur

Télécharger la solution

Télécharger la recette Power Automate

Comment l’installer ?

• Aller sur Power Automate (via www.office.com)
• Importer le Power Automate (importer le zip précédemment téléchargé)
• Éditer le Power automate et configurer votre Email

Vérifier que votre calendrier est sélectionné :

• Sauvegarder
• Activer le power automate

C’est tout bon !

Laissez vos suggestions dans les commentaires pour améliorer le Power automate !

Qu’en pensez-vous ?

The post Power Automate Meeting Reminder appeared first on Collabmania.

Another day, another weird SharePoint problem. We’re working on a client Intranet, and just launched it yesterday. Everything works great and the client is happy. But, as is often the case, we needed to make a few tweaks to the Site Nav based on user feedback. (An Intranet is never done, folks.)

If you look at the screenshot of the site banner below, you can see the issue. There are extraneous icons on the far right, and the Edit link is missing for the Site Nav. That means we can’t make any changes to the Site Nav. There’s no settings page for it and there’s no workaround that I could find.

That is, until I posted the quandary to my MVP channels and Cathy Dew (@catpaint1) gave me an obscure fix. (I shouldn’t need to know exactly who on the Product Team to contact when something like this happens. It’s a bug and it should be fixed. I feel for all of you out there who must go into support ticket hell to resolve these things.)

If you ever get yourself into this state – and if you use Edge, you may well get here – this will fix things for you. (Another option is to switch to Chrome, but that feels wrong.)

This may happen to you if the following things are true:

• You use Edge as your browser
• You’ve enabled Viva Connections
• You’ve opened the Intranet in Microsoft Teams in the browser
• You’re in any SharePoint site and want to edit the Site Nav

The people who manage the Intranet are the most likely to do all of these things, and in the sequence that causes the problem.

The fix is simple if you’re used to the tooling but may not be familiar to you if you haven’t used the Developer Tools. Trust me, it’s not as bad as it looks. Here are the steps.

• Open the Developer tools in your browser by hitting the F12 key
• If you haven’t ever done this before, you’ll get this dialog:

• Click the Open DevTools button. If you’d like to avoid this dialog in the future, check the Remember my decision box first.
• The Developer Tools will open on the right side of the screen (by default – if you’ve used them before, they will be wherever you last docked them).
• Click the Console tab. If your screen isn’t very big, you may need to click on the >> to see the tab.

• At the bottom of the panel, you’ll have a command prompt. (You may well see a whole bunch of errors and other junk in that panel. To be honest, Microsoft does a horrible job cleaning up their debugging messages and spurious errors. But that’s a diatribe for another day.)
• Type localStorage.hostedApp and hit Enter. If you see the 'viva1p' value like I do below, that’s the culprit.

• Type localStorage.hostedApp = null and hit Enter. You’ll see the value is now null.

• Refresh the browser and all shall be good with the world – until the next time you open Microsoft Teams in the browser and navigate to the Intranet. (I’ve been sitting here toggling this back and forth to test it.)

What’s happening here is Microsoft Teams – the Viva Connections app in Teams, actually – is setting a value in the localStorage of your browser. That value for hostedApp tells SharePoint to render the page in a Teams-friendly way, with those extra icons on the right. When we go to the site in SharePoint instead, that value is still set, and the page renders with those icons. It also happens to break the Edit link for the Site Nav.

This fix ONLY sets the localStorage.hostedApp value in your browser to null. It doesn’t do anything dangerous or scary.

Note that this is a BUG. Microsoft knows about it, and one might hope they will fix it – soon. Until then, we have this fix.