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.

v1.26.0

October 2022 (Version 1.26.0, build 20221001.2)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.26.0. A detailed list of all issues closed for this release can be found here. Continue reading below for information on major changes.

File Previewing

You can now preview text and image files from your blob containers or file shares directly inside Storage Explorer. For most text and image files under 10MB, you can click on Preview in either the context menu or toolbar of the blob container and file share data explorers.

After doing so, the right side of Storage Explorer will be split into two views, and the preview will open on the side opposite to the data explorer.

If there's a text, image, or some other type of file that you cannot currently preview but you would like to be able to, please open an issue on GitHub.

User delegation SAS support for blobs

Storage Explorer now supports generating user delegation SAS tokens for blob containers, and attaching blob containers via user delegation SAS authentication.

To generate a user delegation SAS token for your blob container, right click on the container and choose Get Shared Access Signature... from the context menu. Then, once the generate SAS dialog has opened, click on the Signing key dropdown and choose User delegation key.

To successfully generate a blob user delegation SAS, the account being used to create the SAS must have the Storage Blob Delegator (or equivalent) role. For the SAS itself to work, the account which was used to create the SAS must also have a role which authorizes the action you are trying to do with the SAS.

File watching improvements

Storage Explorer now supports file watching files opened from file shares. Just like for blob containers, Storage Explorer will watch double-click opened file share files for changes by external programs. After a change is detected, Storage Explorer will ask you if you would like to re-upload the file or ignore the changes.

You can also now tell Storage Explorer to remember the response you choose for any future changes to that instance of the opened file. This applies both to watched files from blob containers and file shares.

Finally, if you'd like Storage Explorer to stop watching opened files, you can now disable the feature via settings. Simply go to Settings (gear on the left) > Transfers > File Open > Watch Opened Files for Changes and uncheck the checkbox.

Duplicating table entities

You can now duplicate a table entity into a new entity with all of the same properties, but a new partition and/or row key of your choosing. To duplicate a table entity, right click on it and then choose Duplicate... in the context menu.

Additional columns in the file share data explorer

The file share data explorer now shows columns for Last Modified, Attributes, and Permission Key.

Cloning blobs in ADLS Gen2 blob containers

You can now clone blobs in ADLS Gen2 blob containers. To do so, simply select a blob and choose Clone from either the toolbar or context menu. When you clone a blob Storage Explorer will create a copy of the blob in the same location but with a different name of your choosing.

Delete version permission in blob access policies

Storage Explorer now supports adding the delete versions permission to your blob container access policies. To manage the access policies of a blob container, you can right click on it and choose Manage Access Policies....

Support for creating snapshots of disks with extended locations

Storage Explorer can now create snapshots of disks which have an extended location.

Ubuntu 22.04 support

As of version 1.26.0, official support for running Storage Explorer on Ubuntu 22.04 has been added and support for Ubuntu 16.04 has been dropped. If you encounter any issues running Storage Explorer on Ubuntu 22.04, please open an issue on GitHub.

v1.25.1

August 2022 (Version 1.25.1, build 20220809.7)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.25.1. The release hotfixes several issues following the release of 1.25.0.

v1.25.0

July 2022 (Version 1.25.0, build 20220803.8)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.25.0. A detailed list of all issues closed for this release can be found here. Continue reading below for information on major changes.

Adjust AzCopy bandwidth limit mid transfer

The bandwidth limit of an AzCopy transfer can now be adjusted after it has been started. To do so, click on the Adjust Bandwidth Limit... action for the transfer whose bandwidth limit you wish to adjust.

After doing so you can adjust the bandwidth limit as needed. Do note that you can only adjust the bandwidth limit of a transfer once every 60 seconds.

Save and restore tab sessions

You can now save and restore your explorer tabs session when closing and reopening Storage Explorer. This feature is currently opt-in. To opt-in go to Settings > Data Explorers > Preserve Explorer Session and check the checkbox. Do note that on macOS Storage Explorer must either be in the Applications folder or have been moved from the folder it was downloaded into for tab session restoration to work properly.

Get Started page

A Get Started page will now be opened by default when launching Storage Explorer. This page contains buttons to quickly help you Get Started with Storage Explorer.

If you do not want the Get Started page to be shown on startup, you can un-check the Show this page on startup checkbox at the bottom of the page. If you'd like to view the Get Started page, you can do so either by going to Help > Get Started, or by re-enabling showing it on startup by going to Settings > Application > Startup > Show Get Started at startup.

Electron 19

Storage Explorer is now using Electron 19. This version of Electron brings various improvements and bug fixes.

.NET 6.0

Storage Explorer's authentication library is now using .NET 6.0. Users on Linux who are using the .tar.gz distribution of Storage Explorer will need to upgrade to/install the .NET 6.0 runtime to run Storage Explorer 1.25. Instructions on how to install the .NET 6.0 runtime on Linux can be found here. As always, you only need to install the .NET runtime. You do not need to install the ASP.NET Core runtime. For Windows, macOS, and Linux Snap users, this change should have no visible effect.

AzCopy 10.16.0

Storage Explorer is now using AzCopy 10.16.0 for Blob, File Share, and Disk transfers.

Copy and paste blobs without keys or user delegate SAS role

You can now copy and paste blobs without having either keys or the User Delegate SAS RBAC role. This change applies both to non-ADLS Gen2 and ADLS Gen2 blobs. This feature is also limited to copying and pasting between containers in the same tenant and which are authenticated via the same Azure account.

Azure App Configuration extension for Storage Explorer

We have released a new extension for Storage Explorer. This extension allows you to manage your Azure App Configuration resources in Storage Explorer. You can learn more about this extension here.

ADLS Gen1 Integration Deprecation

The ADLS Gen1 integration with Storage Explorer is now being marked as deprecated. All existing ADLS Gen1 functionality will remain in Storage Explorer through at least the end of January 2023. This change is being made in anticipation of ADLS Gen1 itself being retired in 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.

View rehydration status in the blob explorer

You can now easily view the rehydration status of blobs in the blob data explorer. Previously you had to look at rehydration status one by one via the properties dialog.

Access the $blobchangefeed container

Storage Explorer now lists the $blobchangefeed container for accounts which have blob change feed enabled. You can learn more about blob change feed here.

Table column options: Move to Top/Bottom

The column options dialog for the table data explorer now includes Move to Top and Move to Bottom buttons. You can use these buttons to quickly re-order columns to the top or bottom of the list.

Specify Hyper-V generation during managed disk upload

You can now specify the Hyper-V generation when uploading a VHD to create a new Managed Disk.

Optimized listing of keys

Storage Explorer now defers the listing of your account keys until you interact with or access resources within your Storage Account. This change should result in increased performance when loading and searching for storage accounts in the tree view.

Easily configure Storage Explorer log level

You can now change the Storage Explorer log level by going to Settings > Application > Logging > Log Level. You can completely disable logging by setting the log level to Silent, or you can increase the verbosity higher than the default Info level.

Accessibility fixes

Several accessibility fixes were made. A detailed list of accessibility issues fixed can be found here.

v1.24.3

May 2022 (Version 1.24.3, build 20220617.2)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.24.3. The release hotfixes several issues following the release of 1.24.0. Also, Snap users on older versions of Linux distributions should be aware of a known issue with versions 1.24.0 and newer. The issue causes incorrect results to be returned to Storage Explorer when multiple files or folders are selected in a file picker dialog. More information on this issue can be found here.