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Managing Azure Storage Resources
Expedition
Azure Storage Explorer (ASE) [1] offers a lean, locally installable environment for managing Azure storage resources. ASE supports direct access to blob, file, queue, and table storage, with native support for Windows, Linux, and macOS, and it integrates with local development environments such as Visual Studio. ASE makes tasks such as copying blobs between storage accounts, generating Shared Access Signature (SAS) tokens, or working with the Azurite emulator far more efficient than when working in the Azure portal.
Connection Options and Authentication
ASE offers several options for connecting to Azure Storage in the Get Started tab with Attach to a resource links (Figure 1): with an Entra ID login, a connection key, a SAS, or direct URI access. When connecting to a storage account with a connection key, you can view and copy the key directly in Access keys on the Azure portal. If you use Entra ID to log in, make sure the appropriate data roles, such as Storage Blob Data Contributor or Storage Queue Data Reader, are assigned; otherwise, many operations will remain grayed out or throw errors.
Figure 1: ASE manages storage services in Azure without relying on the Azure portal.
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