Here’s the link to the latest weekly build of darktable 5.3, https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/e7jmod7es8ul7qbu6vsyf/darktable-5.3.0-887-gb0c2d5c6bb-win64-NSIS-deprecated.exe?rlkey=ktldz0aqc5b59qher2snosow9&st=peoxe421&dl=0. The list of latest changes is at Comparing b982017164…b0c2d5c6bb darktable-org/darktable · GitHub.
darktable 5.3 is in feature freeze, so this is what darktable 5.4 will be. Now’s the time to test and help drive out all the bugs.
Has anyone perhaps also experienced the following when using this build on Windows 11:
When importing Fuji x-t5 RAF files, the majority of them gets a black thumbnail in lighttable showing a white question mark. During / after importing, an error message “picture type not known” occurs (its meaning - not the exact text, because I haven’t written it down / haven’t taken a screenshot of the message.
What is strange about this: prior Windows Insider builds haven’t shown such problems. Any ideas? Thanks in advance, 
Lars.
Could you raise an issue on GitHub · Where software is built
Thanks for your quick reply, Bill - I’ve Just filed an issue:
Please provide a log using -d common
I’ve just uploaded it to the github issue 
OK, after double-checking today, I can confirm, that the problem was just related to the copy procedure. The message after unmounting the media, that the system was still writing data to the media was showing up somewhere in the background, thus not noted.
So fortunately no bug in the software.
Thanks to @wpferguson and @g-man for your quick support here 
and sorry for the noise. I’ve just closed the github issue accordingly.
@wpferguson, I’m very happy with your weekly insider updates. Is there any reason why I should install the upcoming bi-yearly release when it comes out in December, before continuing on with your weekly builds?
Happy holidays,
Mike
Depending on the development that occurs you could create a series of broken edits. I think when coding there is an effort not to ever break edits but the integrity of this for the most part is highest between official releases so it can be that you are rolling the dice…
I “ride” master, so I don’t know that I’m the best on to ask 
darktable goes to great length to make sure old edits still work between versions.
However, there’s no guarantee for changes that happen in the development cycle… For instance AgX was merged and then underwent a lot of development and changes after being merged. I played with it before it was merged, in a separate build. After it was merged I left it alone during the churn and just started using it a month or so ago. Attempts were made to maintain edits in spite of all the changes, but the overhead of maintaining compatibility across ~7 versions since it was merged became too much and the decision was made to not maintain edits across all the churn.
I will say that in the years I’ve been riding master (8 or 9), I think this is the first time that’s happened.
So if you want to ride master, then keep an eye on what’s happening so that you’ll have a feel whether a change is “safe” to use.
But is the bi-yearly release not the master for that week anyway?
I have had few problems with using the master and I like seeing new features come along and following the discussion that occurs around them. I patiently waited for AgX to become part of the master and when it did I was immediately won over with its ease of use and great results.
I also teach photography and DT classes and the weekly build lets me give my students some insight into what is being developed for the next stable release. For me capture sharpening and AgX are the big ones in December. Both have changed my default editing workflows.
Thanks for your weekly builds for someone who wouldn’t know how to start doing their own builds.
The release build will probably be from somewhere between the 10th and 15th of December. After that will be a week or so of nothing, then the next weekly build with be named darktable-5.5.0.