[ANNOUNCE] Git for Windows 2.55.0-rc2

[Johannes Schindelin]

Dear Git users,

I hereby announce that Git for Windows 2.55.0-rc2 is available from:

https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/releases/tag/v2.55.0-rc2.windows.1

Changes since Git for Windows v2.54.0 (April 20th 2026)

Following the MSYS2 project, on which Git for Windows is based, Windows
8.1 support will be dropped after Git for Windows v2.55.

New Features

* Comes with Git v2.55.0-rc2.
* Comes with the MSYS2 runtime (Git for Windows flavor) based on
Cygwin v3.6.9.
* Comes with Git Credential Manager v2.8.0.
* Comes with cURL v8.20.0.
* Comes with less 702.
* The FSCache now accelerates more git add scenarios.
* Comes with OpenSSL v3.5.7.
* The diff helper handling Word documents was ported from Perl to
Rust.
* Comes with Bash v5.3.15.

Bug Fixes

* A regression in v2.54.0 that could cause endless "Unlink of file
'.git/objects/pack/pack-.idx' failed. Should I try again?" loops on
older Windows 10 versions during git fetch operations was fixed.
* A bug that prevented proper shutdown of processes launched via Git
Bash under certain circumstances was fixed.
* A bug was fixed which could cause parallel checkouts to fail under
certain circumstances when the FSCache is enabled.
* Git Bash (MinTTY) now respects screen scaling settings under more
circumstances.
* A couple of bugs revolving around very large clones/packfiles/
objects were fixed.
* Following TortoiseGit v2.19, .git file validations have been
tightened. As a consequence, access to remote repositories via UNC
file paths needs to be allowed explicitly via the safe.directory
configuration.

Git-2.55.0-rc2-64-bit.exe | 804b7e3392c94c26b5bd3a979febcf5f0bdac04b09d20572c10ab3daca67dd0e
Git-2.55.0-rc2-arm64.exe | 08009883dd388a2de7f6fbaa0e2efafe35d3a041269760d265c0462a52cd5802
PortableGit-2.55.0-rc2-64-bit.7z.exe | ed27e72d93a42ab9f4e62ff0a9f7b54a84c8712d29b3817af60b2a986b0a626f
PortableGit-2.55.0-rc2-arm64.7z.exe | cf1a4ab5f7ba0d35d4a9919d84327fd3e0ca170fbdcea4a82a49091614e925e5
MinGit-2.55.0-rc2-64-bit.zip | 8cb142c6bc4d8385d5efbe0068f8804573e3b569720f6f7f64e90425b92d05c9
MinGit-2.55.0-rc2-arm64.zip | 64226274ad601325aa181bca160529d0d26f13cd64742ce1b939ac096297476c
MinGit-2.55.0-rc2-32-bit.zip | a57922d0c1cd8925f24affee4a42e8e216dacb0ac51f675bbd85ef8e2ebfde01
MinGit-2.55.0-rc2-busybox-64-bit.zip | caf5daa4d5d9b251cc7d109202aee424100bffa12f9e146810255e908d02e9fb
MinGit-2.55.0-rc2-busybox-32-bit.zip | 1edddbfa04d2f544a9f34b275fd9844d3b365d7c318ab29f996bca9bb48963a2
Git-2.55.0-rc2-64-bit.tar.bz2 | a700459442bff0705e62e3441c1f6e5cfdaf191156e7cc06b68544678d663f3a
Git-2.55.0-rc2-arm64.tar.bz2 | 44fc3dfd5235c17fa607dcd9972f7c6b67fb106a4bdbcabb74ab17313d9aeaaa

Ciao,
Johannes