Home Background Installation

Overview

This section provides installation details on the recommended software to start using Git for Windows.

As the bare minimum, you will need Git. An installer is available on Git's official website.

More details on the actual installation to follow.

It is recommended to additionally download the follow free software to use with Git for Windows.

Install Notepad++

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Notepad++ is a fast and lightweight text editor for Windows, useful for editing source code and configuration files. It is free to download from the official website https://notepad-plus-plus.org/. Find the latest version (32 or 64 bit) and download the installer.

Installing Notepad++ before Git will allow you to reference the existing Notepad++ installation during the Git installation.

Run the installer and accept User Account Control.


0. Language

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1. Welcome

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2. License Agreement

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3. Install Location

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4. Components

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  • The default component selections are sufficient
  • Make sure Context Menu Entry is selected (default)
    • This helps for quick edits of text files

5. Options

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6. Finish

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Install PuTTY

PuTTY is a client program for the SSH (Secure Shell) protocol. It will be used to communicate file changes to repositories on a server. It is free, open source, and available to download for Windows and Unix systems at the author's website or ssh.com.

The PuTTY installation will be referenced during the Git installation process.

Download the 32 or 64 bit installer, then run the installer with the default options.

1. Welcome

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2. Destination Folder

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3. Feature Options

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  • Keep Put install directory on the PATH ... selected (default)
    • This will add C:\Program Files\PuTTY to your Windows PATH allowing other programs to find it
    • Use this command to view all current directories in your PATH with cmd (Credit Groosha at Stack Overflow)

> echo %path:;=&echo.%

4. Complete

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Install Git

With Notepad++ and PuTTY installed, it is now a good time to install Git. If installed out of order, that is fine, you can still make changes to Git's configuration after installation.

Installation Options

The default Git installation options will work fine on Windows, but there are a few recommended alternative options that align with the remaining material in the tutorial. These alternative options can also be implemented after installation.

Already Installed?

If you already have Git installed, you can still run the latest installer. This will effectively update your current installation of Git. The installation options will populate based on your current Git configuration and you can modify them during the update installation.

Download and Install

Download the 32 or 64 bit version of Git from the official website git-scm.com and run the installer.

Steps marked Configurable can be configured post-installation.

1. Information

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2. Destination Location

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3. Select Components

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  • The default component selections (shown) are sufficient
  • It is recommended to keep the Git Bash Here Windows Explorer integration checked for quick access to bash commands

4. Start Menu

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5. Text Editor Configurable

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  • The default selection is Vim only for historical reasons
  • It is recommended to use the already installed and user-friendly Notepad++ text editor
  • This default editor is launched when running git commit without a message argument, prompting for a message

6. PATH Environment

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  • The default recommended selection is the best option
  • This option only adds the necessary entries to PATH allowing Git commands from:
    • Windows Command Prompt (cmd)
    • Windows Powershell
    • Git Bash
  • Unix commands will only be available from Git Bash with this option

7. SSH Agent Configurable

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  • Git ships with OpenSSH (default) as the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol client.
    • However, all of OpenSSH's tools are command line execution only. This can be difficult for new users.
  • PuTTY has a suite of user-friendly graphical interface applications to perform SSH client operations.
  • This step of the installation is looking for the executable of a remote connection tool.
    • Plink (PuTTY Link) can be found from any of the following installations:
      • C:\Program Files\PuTTY\Plink.exe - Already installed above
      • C:\Program Files\TortoiseGit\bin\TortoiseGitPlink.exe
      • C:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN\bin\TortoisePlink.exe

8. SSL Backend Configurable

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  • The default selection is suitable for most cases, especially when using SSH to connect with remote servers instead of HTTPS.

9. File Checkout Configurable

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  • On checkout, Git will convert unix-style line endings (line feed LF) to windows-style line endings (carriage return CR line feed LF) for text-based files.
  • During a commit, the inverse is performed.
  • This is the recommended option for Windows compatibility.

10. Terminal

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  • To avoid complications (ASC-II, scroll-back) with the Windows Command Prompt, it is recommended to use MinTTY (default) as the terminal emulator for Git Bash.

11. Extra Options Configurable

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  • Each option can be enabled or disabled post-installation.
  • The Git Credential Manager (stores HTTPS connection usernames and passwords) is unnecessary when utilizing SSH for remote connections.

12. Complete

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Git has now successfully been installed on your computer.

Install TortoiseGit

TortoiseGit is a free and open source Windows software to interface with Git.

Specifically, TortoiseGit is a lightweight Windows Shell Interface to Git making it very easy to use with all commands directly available from the Windows Explorer. It is based on the TortoiseSVN interface for Apache's Subversion version control system.

Additionally, TortoiseGit provides helpful tools for file comparison and merging. It works independently of all IDE (Integrated Development Environment) applications

TortoiseGit is available for download on its official website Download and run the latest stable installer for your 32 or 64 bit system.

1. Welcome

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2. Information

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3. SSH Client

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  • TortoiseGitPlink is TortoiseGit's adoption of PuTTY's Plink.
  • You may use TortoiseGitPlink.exe or Plink.exe for Git operations. However, PuTTY provides additional tools for SSH connections which prove useful for many scenarios.

4. Custom Setup

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All subfeatures are selected by default and take up little space.

5. Ready to Install

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6. Complete

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Once installed, TortoiseGit prompts the user to run the First Start Wizard. This is highly recommended to complete the setup of TortoiseGit before usage.

Steps marked Configurable can be configured post-installation.

1. Language

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2. Details

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3. Git Path

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4. User Configuration Configurable

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Git's user configuration will be setup in the next page so the reader can see how to set, modify, and unset the user name and email in the Git configuration.

5. Authentication and Credential Store Configurable

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  • Similar to the Git installation, the credential store is unnecessary since it is recommended to use SSH for all remote connections.
  • Selecting a credential helper will not interfere with any SSH setup.
  • The credential helper configuration can be change at any time.