Azure Storage Emulator error and does not start

Summarizing and adding additional points to other answers to this question.

Open C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\Storage Emulator\AzureStorageEmulator.exe file in a notepad or a notepad++ editor. Look at the services section.

<services>
  <service name="Blob" url="http://127.0.0.1:10000/"/>
  <service name="Queue" url="http://127.0.0.1:10001/"/>
  <service name="Table" url="http://127.0.0.1:10002/"/>
</services>

Try to open URL for "Blob" in a web browser. In my case it is

http://127.0.0.1:10000/

If you are unable to open the URL or if there is a error, this is the reason why you are not unable to start Azure Storage Emulator.

Try below steps to resolve the issue.

1) Check if the port 10000 is busy or used by any other process.

To know this you can type the below command in the command prompt

netstat -na | find "10000"

Kill the process.

Now start the Azure Storage Emulator in -inprocess mode

In the Azure Storage Emulator's command prompt type

AzureStorageEmulator.exe start -inprocess

Ctrl+c and then

AzureStorageEmulator.exe start

If this did not resolve the issue try second step.

2) Run this

netsh http add iplisten 127.0.0.1

and then in the Azure Storage Emulator's command prompt type

AzureStorageEmulator.exe start -inprocess

Ctrl+c and then

AzureStorageEmulator.exe start

In the file C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\Storage Emulator\AzureStorageEmulator.exe.config you need to change port numbers:

Check if you are running BitTorrent/uTorrent or similar software using port 10000.

Check Steve Marx' blog post about the issue. http://blog.smarx.com/posts/windows-azure-storage-emulator-the-process-cannot-access-the-file-because-it-is-being-used-by-another-process

In case that post disappears, the command to check if any other software is using that port is:

C:\Users\smarx>netstat -p tcp -ano | findstr :10000
  TCP    127.0.0.1:10000        0.0.0.0:0              LISTENING       3672

I have same issue after Azure tools update (2.3 version). After hours of research I found strange solution - set 'Start Windows Azure storage emulator' to 'False' (in properties of Azure project).