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Overview
Exchange Online PowerShell offers powerful capabilities for managing bulk mailboxes or executing commands otherwise not available via UI. While you can always spin up a PowerShell instance, there's an easier way to access PowerShell commands if you're already signed into the Exchange Online Admin portal.
 
Process
From the Exchange Online Admin portal (https://admin.exchange.microsoft.com), click on the Cloud Shell icon in the upper right corner of the toolbar:
 
Admin portal screenshot, showing cloud shell icon in the upper right of the screen
 
Once the shell initializes at the bottom of the screen, make sure to click on Switch to PowerShell button to load PowerShell instead of Bash:
 
Screenshot of the cloud shell pane in the lower part of the browser with a Switch to Bash button in the top right to toggle between Bash and PowerShell
 
You can now connect to Exchange Online by running connect-exchangeonline cmdlet - authentication is already done since you're signed in to the portal, and you can now run any Exchange Online cmdlet!
 
For example, you can kick off the managed folder assistant to start moving mail to archive (start-managedfolderassistant -identity [email alias]:
 
Example of running an Exchange Online cmdlet to start managed folder assistant
 
Keywords: exchange online powershell