March 2021 (Version 1.18.1, build 20210304.5)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.18.1. Notable changes in this release compared to 1.17.0 include a refreshed connect experience, enhanced SAS support for ADLS Gen2, and improvements to startup performance. This version also hotfixes several issues introduced in 1.18.0. For more details on all of these changes and more, continue reading below.

Hotfixes

• In 1.18.0, if you did not have access to the keys for your Storage account, you would be unable to browse data plane resources. This issue has been fixed. #4151
• In 1.18.0, the new Connect dialog did not include the ability to attach a Storage account via a SAS URL. This functionality has been restored. #4149
• When generating shared access signatures, % characters are now properly being encoded. #4141

New

General

• The Connect dialog has been overhauled and refreshed in order to reduce complexity and confusion. This has been accomplished by optimizing the flow of the Connect dialog towards more clearly guiding you through the connect experience. The dialog now asks you what type of resource you want to connect to, how you want to authenticate the connection, and finally the specific details for that connection. If you have any feedback regarding the new experience, please open an issue on GitHub. #2965
• Several optimizations have been completed to decrease the startup time of Storage Explorer and the time it takes to load actionable resources in the tree view. If you have any feedback regarding startup performance please open an issue on GitHub. We will continue addressing startup related performance over the next few releases.
• Storage Explorer is now using AzCopy v10.8.0.
• Log files now have more descriptive file names. You can find Storage Explorer log files by going to Help → Open Logs Directory. #3735
• You can now easily clean up old log files by going to Help → Delete Old Logs. This action will delete Storage Explorer logs which are 30 or more days old. #3817

Storage Accounts

• Generating shared access signatures is now enabled for ADLS Gen2 Storage accounts. You can now attach an ADLS Gen2 Storage account via a SAS connection string. #2252

Blobs

• You can now generate shared access signatures for ADLS Gen2 containers and folders. You can attach now ADLS Gen2 containers and folders via a SAS URI. #3738
• When generating shared access signatures for blobs and blob containers you can now choose which account key to use. #1659
• Propagating ACLs for ADLS Gen2 containers (the root directory) is now supported. #3876
• Setting public access level is now supported for ADLS Gen2 containers. #3138
• When viewing properties of blobs and folders in an ADLS Gen2 container both the blob and DFS URLs are shown. #3357
• An activity is now displayed when saving properties for blobs. #2534
• An activity is now displayed when changing public access level for blob containers. #3620

File Shares

• An activity is now displayed when changing access policies for a file share. #1837
• An activity is now displayed when saving properties for files and folders in a file share. #2534

Azure Data Factory & Extensions

• Version 0.1.5 of the ADF extension is now available. If you have already installed the extension, you can update it from the Extensions panel. Otherwise, you can download it here. The new version includes:
  • A tutorial will now be shown the first time you use the ADF extension.
  • You can now use Amazon S3 temporary security credentials to authenticate connections to your S3 data.
  • When creating a new factory, the subscription dropdown will default to the last used subscription.
  • A variety of accessibility fixes.
• Are you interested in creating your own Storage Explorer extension? We're looking for developers who want to create their own Storage Explorer extension. For more information about how to have an opportunity to create one see here.

Fixes

General

• In several textboxes, you could not use keyboard shortcuts (such as Ctrl+Shift+Arrow Key to jump-highlight). This issue has been fixed. #3230
• After canceling/clearing search in the tree view, the node which was selected in the search results did not remain selected. The node should now remain selected. #33
• After clicking load more in the tree view, selection would move to the parent of the "Load more..." node. Now, the node which was before the "Load more..." node will be selected. #1846
• Operations which involved the use of AzCopy would fail to start on Windows ARM devices. This issue has been fixed. #2553
• The theme menu did not make it clear what the current theme was. There is now a checkmark next to the current theme. #1194
• Ellipses for button labels in explorer toolbars were not being themed properly. This issue has been fixed. #2555
• In the data table for explorers, ampersands would sometimes be rendered as "&amp". This issue has been fixed. #3377 #3955

Storage Accounts

• Service nodes for file shares, queues, and tables, were incorrectly being showed under classic premium Storage accounts. This issue has been fixed. #3821

Blobs

• After downloading a blob, using the "Open Folder" action would not focus the downloaded blob. A new "Show in Folder" action has now replaced "Open Folder" and will correctly show the downloaded blob. #753
• Renaming ADLS Gen2 blobs which contained special characters, such as ' or /, would fail. This was due to an issue in the storage-file-datalake SDK. The issue has been fixed both in the SDK and Storage Explorer. #3360 #3744
• The validation for new names when cloning blobs has been updated to not allow for names with trailing ".". #3361
• Changing the public access level for blob containers in Premium GPV1 and GPV2 accounts has been disabled. Containers in such Storage accounts cannot be made publicly accessible. #3598
• When cloning an emulator blob container, blobs in subdirectories were not being cloned. This issue has been fixed. #3720
• Renaming ADLS Gen2 folders to the name "?" would fail. This issue has been fixed. #3820
• When cloning or creating a folder, the use of name which was already taken by an existing folder was not always being detected. This issue has been fixed. #3903 #3985
• Creating a folder in an ADLS Gen2 container with a name that contains % would fail. This issue has been fixed. #3987
• Attempting to edit the tags of a blob whose name contains % would fail. This issue has been fixed. #3990
• The validation for metadata keys for ADLS Gen2 blobs and folders has been updated to properly detect if a key is a valid C# identifier. #4049

File Shares

• A consistent format is now being used for snapshot related timestamps in the file share explorer and activities in the Activity Log. #3890
• When viewing properties for a file or folder in a file share, URI encodable characters in the URL are no longer encoded. This is consistent with the view properties experience for blobs. #3786
• The validation for new names when cloning files in a file shares has been updated to better look for invalid characters. #2566 #3374
• The validation for metadata values for files and folders in file shares has been updated to allow for empty strings. #3408
• The validation for metadata keys for files and folders in file shares has been updated to properly detect if a key is a valid C# identifier. #3581

Queues

• The validation for queue names when creating a new queue regressed to allow for invalid characters. This issue has been fixed. #3899

Known Issues

• If you have a file extension which looks like the URI encoded version of a character which cannot be used on Windows, and you upload that file from a Windows machine, the file extension will be decoded during upload. #4045

See the issues page for a complete list of all known issues.