September 2021 (Version 1.21.0, build 20210908.7)
Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.21.0. This release includes many new features including secondary endpoint support, updates to viewing blobs, changes to how times and dates are displayed, and support for Gen2 soft delete. For a deeper dive into these features and more, continue reading below. A detailed list of all major changes can be found here.
.NET Core 3.1 required for Linux .tar.gz installs
For users on Linux who have installed from the .tar.gz bundle, you will now need .NET Core 3.1 installed in order to run Storage Explorer. The version of .NET Core previously used by Storage Explorer, version 2.1, reached end of support in August 2021.
Secondary endpoint support
There is now an Open Secondary Location action in the context menu for containers which have a secondary endpoint. Clicking on this action will add a (secondary) node to the tree and open the blob explorer for it as well. This node represents the container at its secondary endpoint. You can use this node to view and perform read-only actions on the data at your secondary endpoint.
You can also now find secondary endpoint information in the Properties panel for accounts and containers which have a secondary endpoint.
New features for the blob explorer
Several new features have been added in the blob explorer. First, the side panel button's label has been replaced by a "toggles" icon, and the panel it opens has been renamed to the View Options panel. A setting to always have the View Options panel expanded when opening a blob explorer has been added. You can find this setting under Data Explorers > Blob Explorer > Show View Options by Default.
In the View Options panel, in addition to filtering, you will now find a List Mode option. This option allows you to change between Hierarchical and Flat listing of your blobs. When listing Flat, virtual directories are no longer shown. All blobs are listed at the root level and their full name is displayed.
If you prefer to list Flat in most cases, you can change the default List Mode in settings under Data Explorers > Blob Explorer > Default List Mode.
Finally, prefix and tag filters are now included in the navigation history. For example, if you were to filter by prefix foo/bar and then open a folder in the filter results, clicking Back will now take you back to the results for filter by prefix foo/bar.
Note: All of the above currently only applies to the blob explorer for non-Gen2 blob containers.
Respecting regional settings for dates and times
Storage Explorer now respects your OS settings for how to display dates and times.
To customize your date and time display settings:
- For Windows: Open Settings > Time & Language > Region (click on Additional date, time & regional settings for more advanced control over date and time formats).
- For macOS: Open System Preferences > Language & Region > Advanced
- For Linux: Customizing date and time display settings depends on your Linux distribution (Storage Explorer reads locale settings using the
localeC API).
If you find a date or time in Storage Explorer which does not respect your OS settings, please open an issue on GitHub.
ADLS Gen2 soft delete
Storage Explorer now supports soft delete in ADLS Gen2 storage accounts. This support includes being able to manage your delete retention policy and view soft-deleted blobs.
ADLS Gen2 soft delete is fundamentally different from non-ADLS Gen2 soft delete. We encourage you to read the Azure Storage Explorer soft delete guide to learn more about the differences between soft delete in non-ADLS Gen2 and ADLS Gen2 accounts.
There are two known issues with ADLS Gen2 soft delete:
- Storage Explorer cannot soft delete ADLS Gen2 snapshots. When deleting snapshots, they are always permanently deleted. #4670
- Soft-deleted directories cannot be viewed in the "Active and soft deleted blobs" view context. You can use the "Deleted only" view context to view and manage the soft deleted directories. #4808
Fixes for both of these issues rely on service changes. Once the service changes are rolled out these issues will be resolved.
Note: ADLS Gen2 soft delete is currently in public preview and you will need to enroll at the service level before you can use these features.
Bypass proxy setting
Storage Explorer's proxy settings now include a Bypass setting. You can use this setting to specify a list of hostnames or hostname patterns you do not want Storage Explorer to apply proxy settings for. This setting only applies if Proxy Source is set to Use app settings.
If your Proxy Source setting is set to Use environment variables, then you can now add a NO_PROXY environment variable for the same effect. The value of this variable should be a comma separated list of the hostnames you want to bypass proxy settings.
Confirm quit before exit
Storage Explorer will now prompt you before quitting if you try to quit while any activities are not complete.
Azure Data Factory extension update
A new version of the Azure Data Factory extension is now available. This version adds support for Google Cloud Storage as a data source. You can download the latest version of the Azure Data Factory extension here.