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.

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.