First-Time Configuration

The Configuration Wizard launches automatically when SharePoint Storage Explorer install finishes. This guide walks every step of the wizard: registering the read-only Entra ID application, providing your tenant name, choosing version-scan depth, and entering contact details to activate the install.

Set aside about 10 minutes. The longest single wait is the version-scan choice in Step 16, where you decide whether the initial scan includes file-level versions or only site-level totals.

What you need on hand

• The SharePoint admin URL for your tenant (https://<yourcompany>-admin.sharepoint.com).
• An Entra ID account with one of: Global Administrator, Cloud Applications Administrator, or Application Administrator role.
• Your name, email, and (optionally) company name for the contact-details step.

Step 1: Launch the wizard

The Configuration Wizard launches automatically when the installer completes. Close other applications that might steal focus and click Next.

If the wizard does not launch automatically, find SharePoint Storage Explorer in the Start menu and launch it manually — the Configuration Wizard runs on first start.

Troubleshooting — IE Enhanced Security warning

If you see "IE Enhanced Security Configuration is enabled!" the Windows Server policy blocks the Microsoft sign-in popup the wizard needs. Disable it in Server Manager:

1. Open Server Manager → Local Server.
2. Find IE Enhanced Security Configuration.
3. Set both Administrators and Users to Off.
4. Click OK.
5. Relaunch the wizard.

Step 2: Review the important information

The wizard displays the key requirements and behaviours for your acknowledgement:

• An Entra ID application will be registered with SharePoint FullControl read permissions (read-only — no write or modify scope is requested).
• You need one of the named Azure / Entra roles to grant the registration.
• The initial scan focuses on the 100 largest sites.
• Deep scans are resource-intensive and time-consuming.
• 32 GB of RAM or more is recommended for large tenants.
• A new virtual machine is the cleanest install location.
• File-version storage shown in the UI is an estimated value.

Tick Understood and accepted and click Next.

Step 3: Register the application

Click Register Application ID. The wizard opens the Microsoft sign-in page. Authenticate with an account that holds one of the required Azure roles.

Step 4: Enter the tenant name

You will be prompted for the tenant name — the portion of your SharePoint admin URL before -admin.sharepoint.com. For example, if your admin URL is mycompany-admin.sharepoint.com, enter mycompany. Click OK.

Step 5: Sign in to Microsoft Azure

The Azure sign-in prompt appears. Enter the credentials for the authorised account and complete any multi-factor authentication. Microsoft processes the application registration on your tenant.

Step 6: Confirmation

A confirmation message appears stating the application is successfully registered. Click OK.

Step 7: Choose version-scan depth

You are asked whether to include file-level version scanning:

• Include file-level versions — every file's version chain is enumerated. Gives precise per-file version counts and storage totals. Substantially slower for large tenants; for some it can run for several days or weeks.
• Skip file-level versions — site-level version totals only. Completes much faster. The site-level number is still useful for cleanup decisions; you just do not see which specific files are responsible.

For first-time scans, skip file-level versions is usually the right choice — get the overview first, then decide whether the deeper detail is worth the scan time. See light vs deep scan for the trade-off in detail.

Step 8: Enter contact details

Provide:

• Full name (required)
• Email address (required)
• Company name (optional)

Click OK. The wizard uses these details for activation and support only — Smikar does not share contact information with third parties.

Step 9: Finish

A final confirmation appears. Click Finish to close the wizard. SharePoint Storage Explorer is now ready to use.

The first scan kicks off in the background. Depending on your tenant size and the version-scan choice you made, results begin populating the site overview within minutes to hours.

What gets registered in your tenant

For audit transparency, the wizard registers one Entra ID application:

• Name: SharePoint Storage Explorer
• Permissions: SharePoint FullControl application permission, used read-only by the tool. The application makes no write calls to SharePoint at any point.
• Owner: the account you signed in with during Step 5.

You can review the registered application at any time in the Entra ID admin centre under App registrations. If you uninstall SharePoint Storage Explorer, removing the application registration from Entra ID is a manual cleanup step.

See also

• Install SharePoint Storage Explorer — the installer walkthrough that precedes this guide.
• Light vs deep scan — picking the right scan depth.
• Site overview — where the first scan results land.

Need help? support@smikar.com.