I can't use Windows Admin Center via the Azure Portal

Hello @TBFG Azure Admin ,

You’re running into that—this specific message from the Azure Portal (“You are not authorized to access this tool / Couldn’t start Windows Admin Center”) almost always comes down to the access/role prerequisites for using Windows Admin Center (WAC) from within Azure.

Here’s the practical checklist to work through:

What to check

• Confirm you’re using the correct Azure account
  • Make sure the user trying to launch WAC from the Azure Portal is the same identity that was granted access (and not a different sign-in session).
• Verify the required Azure permissions/roles are assigned
  • Even if you “added all the permissions and role,” double-check:
    • The role is assigned at the right scope (subscription / resource group / the specific VM/resource).
    • The assignment is to the user (or group) you’re using in the portal.
• Allow time for role propagation
  • Azure RBAC changes can take a few minutes to become effective.
  • The error message itself recommends waiting—so try signing out and back in, or wait a bit and retry.
• Confirm the Azure Portal has the WAC experience enabled for your tenant/subscription
• You mentioned you installed extensions—still, WAC launching from the portal is also dependent on the platform-side authorization and configuration, not only VM extensions.

Can you please update us if the action plan provided was helpful?

Should there be any follow-up questions or concerns, please let us know and we shall try to address them.

If these answer your question, click "Upvote" which may be beneficial to other community members reading this thread.

Thanks Pranitha

Confirm you’re using the correct Azure account

We only have one account and that is the account we login as and access WAC

Verify the required Azure permissions/roles are assigned

We have run this through multiple AI agents and Google and added all of the recommended permission and roles

One of the main ones that comes up is 'Windows Admin Center Administrator Login' and that is definitely assigned

Confirm the Azure Portal has the WAC experience enabled for your tenant/subscription

How do I do this? WAC was available to be setup so I am assuming that it is.

You mentioned you installed extensions—still, WAC launching from the portal is also dependent on the platform-side authorization and configuration, not only VM extensions.

Not sure what this means? WAC is installed on the platform-side, but there is no access to it to check permissions.

Whenever we try and check via Port 6516 we get this

{"error":{"message":"File not found","code":"NotFound","detail":""}}

Hello TBFG Azure Admin ,

Thank you for the detailed update.

Based on the information shared, the error message "Couldn't start Windows Admin Center: Not authorized to access this tool" appears to be related to an authorization or access validation check performed when launching Windows Admin Center (WAC) from the Azure Portal. While RBAC remains a possible factor, additional validation may be required to determine whether the issue is related to role assignments, authorization scope, or the portal-to-WAC integration.

To help further isolate the issue, could you please review the following:

1. Confirm the identity being used to launch WAC As you mentioned that only a single account is being used to access both the Azure Portal and Windows Admin Center, this helps reduce the likelihood of a user identity mismatch. Since the Windows Admin Center Administrator Login role has already been assigned, could you please sign out of the Azure Portal, sign back in, and attempt to launch WAC again? This will help ensure that any recent RBAC changes have fully propagated.
2. Validate the RBAC assignment scope We understand that the recommended role assignments have already been reviewed and applied. To verify the assignment scope, could you please confirm whether the Windows Admin Center Administrator Login role is assigned at the Subscription, Resource Group, or Virtual Machine level, and whether that scope includes the affected VM?
3. Verify WAC launch prerequisites The successful deployment of the Windows Admin Center extension confirms that the extension installation completed successfully. However, the Azure Portal launch process includes additional authorization and access validation checks beyond extension deployment. Reviewing the above RBAC and scope configurations will help determine whether any portal-side authorization requirements remain outstanding.
4. Port 6516 response The response returned from port **6516
   ** {"error":{"message":"File not found","code":"NotFound","detail":""}}
   confirms that the endpoint is reachable and returning a response. However, this response alone does not provide sufficient information to determine whether the Azure Portal authorization flow for Windows Admin Center is functioning correctly. For this reason, we recommend continuing to investigate the authorization path, including role assignments, scope validation, and the account being used to access the Azure Portal.

Please let us know the RBAC assignment scope and the results of the above validation. Based on the findings, we will review the next appropriate troubleshooting steps.

Hi Pranitha

I have logged in and out of Azure several times, but it doesn't affect the result sorry.

Validate the RBAC assignment scope

https://prnt.sc/rUgc00vbqSK_

It is assigned at the Resource level

Hello TBFG Azure Admin

Thank you for responding.

The "You are not authorized to access this tool" message can occur even when the required Azure roles are assigned correctly. Based on the provided RBAC configuration, the Windows Admin Center Administrator Login role is already assigned at the Virtual Machine resource level, which is the correct scope required to access Windows Admin Center.

This indicates that the issue is likely related to one of the following:

• The Windows Admin Center extension is not installed correctly or is in a failed/unhealthy state.
• Recent RBAC changes have not fully propagated across Azure services yet.
• Required Windows Admin Center networking prerequisites are not being met.
• A portal session, browser cache, or service-side validation issue is preventing successful authorization.

To resolve the issue, please perform the following steps:

1. Sign out of the Azure Portal and sign back in using the same account that has the Windows Admin Center Administrator Login role assigned. This ensures that any recent RBAC changes are refreshed and recognized by the service.
2. Navigate to VM → Extensions + Applications and verify that the Windows Admin Center extension is present and shows a Succeeded provisioning state.
3. If the extension is unavailable, failed, or unhealthy, reinstall the Windows Admin Center extension and retry the connection. Extension deployment issues can result in authorization-related access failures.
4. Confirm that the VM has the required outbound HTTPS connectivity to Azure services used by Windows Admin Center. Connectivity restrictions can prevent successful authentication and portal integration.
5. Retry accessing Windows Admin Center using an InPrivate/Incognito browser session to eliminate any browser cache or session-related issues.

Can you please update us if the action plan provided was helpful?

Should there be any follow-up questions or concerns, please let us know and we shall try to address them.

If these answer your question, click "Upvote" which may be beneficial to other community members reading this thread.