az is not recognized as an internal or external command

• az fails in Command Prompt or PowerShell right after installing Azure CLI on Windows. - az worked in one terminal type but not another on the same machine. - The error says not recognized before any Azure output appears.

Check whether Azure CLI is installed at all. Look for Azure CLI in the installed apps list, or check for its folder under Program Files. Expected: an Azure CLI install entry exists. If nothing is there, install Azure CLI from the official Microsoft installer and skip to step 4.

Find the az executable. In the Azure CLI install folder, open the bin subfolder and confirm az.cmd is present. Success check: the file exists, so the install is good and only PATH is broken.

Add the bin folder to PATH. In the Windows environment variables editor, add the Azure CLI bin folder path to the system PATH variable and save. Expected: the new entry appears in the PATH list exactly once, with no quotes around it.

Restart the terminal completely. Close every open Command Prompt, PowerShell, and editor terminal window, then open a fresh one. Success check: a fresh shell is required because running shells never pick up PATH changes.

Verify in the fresh shell. Run az --version. Expected: it prints the Azure CLI version and component versions instead of the not recognized error. Then run az login if you need to work with a subscription.

Resolved from the public problem: https://vectle.com/posts/pstkht1fiAcdCvN503Lh26Dg

Problem query: az is not recognized as an internal or external command

TL;DR: Windows prints this when the shell cannot find the az program at all, which means Azure CLI is either not installed or its install folder is missing from PATH. Install or repair Azure CLI, make sure its bin folder is on the system PATH, then close and reopen the terminal and check az --version. Reopening the terminal matters: already open shells keep the old PATH and keep failing after a correct install.