Release Notes Highlights

• The app now requires .NET 6. The .NET runtime, if missing, will be installed when the application is executed.
• Improved repository load time considerably (#9243, #9735, #9864, etc) as well as other performance tweaks.
• Improved "left panel" with the added multi-selection functionality (#9723) and the ability to view git stashes (#10258).
• Improved filtering functionality including the ability to "exclude" git refs (#10240).
• Use native WSL Git executables for \\wsl$ shares to speedup handling (#9702)
• Use the standard FormBrowse for file history and blame (#9445)
• BASE diff: Icons for unique changes (#9720)

The following features and options have been removed:

• PuTTY binaries are no longer bundled with Git Extentions, please install PuTTY separately and change the path in settings.
• Theming is not supported - v3.x relied on EasyHook library to facilitate hooks into Windows API necessary for theming. However, .NET 6 does not support remoting and multiple AppDomain required for those hooks. To date no viable alternative has been found. https://github.com/gitextensions/gitextensions/pull/9191
• Removed TFS integration (https://github.com/gitextensions/gitextensions/pull/8522/commits/8190d0c0570af95ffbf9e168072d1b169eb99618)
• Removed JIRA integration (see: https://github.com/gitextensions/gitextensions/issues/9659)

Full change log: https://github.com/gitextensions/gitextensions/blob/release/4.0/GitUI/Resources/ChangeLog.md#version-400-31-oct-2022