Windows Azure Storage Emulator 2.2.1 Preview Release with support for “2013-08-15” version

We are excited to announce the release of a preview update to the Windows Azure Storage Emulator that supports the newly announced features for version “2013-08-15” such as CORS, JSON, etc.

The Windows Azure Storage Emulator 2.2.1 Preview Release MSI package can be found here.

Installation steps

This is a preview release and requires that Windows Azure SDK 2.2 be already installed. The installer does not replace the Windows Azure Storage Emulator 2.2 binaries automatically. Instead, it will drop the binaries under a temporary folder "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Azure Storage Emulator 2.2.1\devstore" for 32-bit OS or "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Windows Azure Storage Emulator 2.2.1\devstore" for 64-bit OS. We took this approach of not overwriting because of the “preview” nature of this emulator and it allows you to easily revert back to previous emulator if required without requiring uninstallation and reinstallation of SDK 2.2. We therefore recommend backing up the Windows Azure Storage Emulator 2.2 binaries and replacing them with the new binaries. A readme.txt file with the detailed manual steps will be open after the MSI installation is complete.

Please note that this is a preview version and any feedback will be greatly appreciated. Please feel free to leave any comments at the end of this post or at the Windows Azure Storage Forum.

Michael Roberson, Jean Ghanem

For your convenience, we are providing the post MSI installation instructions that are part of the readme.txt file that is available once you install below:

[README.TXT]

Windows Azure Storage Emulator 2.2.1 Preview

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PREREQUISITES

Windows Azure SDK 2.2 must already be installed from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40893

SETUP

To use version 2.2.1, follow these steps:

1. Ensure that Windows Azure SDK 2.2 is installed. The Windows Azure Storage Emulator 2.2.1 will not work unless SDK version 2.2 is installed.
2. Shut down the Windows Azure Storage Emulator if it is currently running.
3. Copy all files from the following path:

• For 32-bit OS: "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Azure Storage Emulator 2.2.1\devstore"
• For 64-bit OS: "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Windows Azure Storage Emulator 2.2.1\devstore"

to the following path:

"%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Azure\Emulator\devstore"

If prompted, choose to replace the existing files with the new ones.

UNINSTALLATION

Windows Azure Storage Emulator 2.2.1 maintains backward compatibility with version 2.2, so reverting back to version 2.2 is unnecessary in most cases. To revert anyway, reinstall the Windows Azure SDK 2.2 emulator package from the following website:

http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/downloads/