Getting Connect-MsolService (and other Azure Active Directory PowerShell cmdlets) to work
This post was most recently updated on January 30th, 2024.
8min read.
In this post, I’ll try to archive everything that you need to download and install to get commandlets like Connect-MsolService working. I’ve had to do it a couple of times when changing laptops, so it’s good to document them somewhere! :)
So, when would you need to follow this guide and install the modules described here? Mostly this comes to play, when you’re switching machines, try to run the SharePoint Online Management shell but it doesn’t even exist on the machine, or it does exist but you get random errors like this:
The term ‘Connect-MsolService’ is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
The following guide should help you out! I’ll try to keep it updated as things change.
Prerequisites to get Azure AD commandlets (like MSOnline/MSOL and AzureAD) to work
Depending on your use case, you might not always need all of these – but these are the ones I’ve had to recently install (on Windows 10), so these are the ones I’m going to document :)
Time needed: 15 minutes
How to install the prerequisites for AzureAD and related commandlets?
(Optional) Install Microsoft Online Services Sign-In Assistant for IT Professionals RTW
(Or you can actually just use Windows PowerShell if you want to – just see the next step on how to install the correct module!)
Install MSOnline module – Option 1
Windows Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell – also known as Azure AD PowerShell module v1, or MSOnline, and probably a number of other names as well!
Run this on PowerShell:
Install-Module MSOnline
Then hit “y” a couple of times and you should be good!
Note, that this is essentially a legacy module now… But AzureAD commandlet story is confusing, to say the least, and you might end up needing these as well.
Install AzureAD module – Option 2
Windows Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell (v2 – also simply known as AzureAD cmdlets)
Verify, that you have .NET Framework 4.5 or above, or download it from here.
Run this in your PowerShell window:
Install-Module AzureAD
(Optional) – install AzureRM
If you also need Azure Remote Management (AzureRM) cmdlets (I always do!), run this in an elevated PowerShell:
# Install the Azure Resource Manager modules from the PowerShell Gallery Install-Module AzureRM
Now, to run cmdlets like “Connect-MsolService”, just start SharePoint Online Management Shell (or Windows PowerShell).
Welp – I’m still having issues! What do?
If using the modules still fail, you might be running 64b PowerShell but installed the first cmdlets for 32b, or the other way around. In that case, you can just start the right version of PowerShell by finding it from your directory structure, 32b at least can be launched with the MSOnline imported with the following commands:
cd C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -NoExit -Command "Import-Module MSOnline"
You might need to use a specific version & architecture of PowerShell to run certain scripts because the modules are installed separately between different versions. More information is available right here below:
Adds an existing Office 365 user or an Office 365 security group to a SharePoint group.
Connect-SPOService
Connects a SharePoint Online global administrator to a SharePoint Online connection (the SharePoint Online Administration Center). This cmdlet must be run before any other SharePoint Online cmdlets can run.
Disconnect-SPOService
Disconnects from a SharePoint Online service.
Get-SPOAppErrors
Returns application errors.
Get-SPOAppInfo
Returns all installed applications.
Get-SPODeletedSite
Returns all deleted site collections that are in the Recycle Bin.
Get-SPOExternalUser
Returns external users that are located in the tenant’s folder based on specified criteria.
Get-SPOSite
Returns one or more site collections.
Get-SPOSiteGroup
Returns all the groups on the specified site collection.
Antti Koskela is a proud digital native nomadic millennial full stack developer (is that enough funny buzzwords? That's definitely enough funny buzzwords!), who works as Solutions Architect for Precio Fishbone, building delightful Digital Workplaces.
He's been a developer from 2004 (starting with PHP and Java), and he's been working on .NET projects, Azure, Office 365, SharePoint and a lot of other stuff. He's also Microsoft MVP for Azure.
This is his personal professional (e.g. professional, but definitely personal) blog.
