The Git commands above were pulled from here. To stop tracking the files in the ignore file open a command prompt and navigate to the directory that contains your solution file (.sln) and run the following commands. Stop tracking files that should be ignored Switch to the Git Changes window and enter a commit message and then click the Commit Staged button to commit the change to your current working branch. gitignore file with all the proper files ignored for a typical Visual Studio setup. From the list on the left select Git Repository Settings and then click the Add button for Ignore file. The above will open Visual Studio’s Options with Source Control > Git Global Settings selected.

Open Visual Studio and the solution needing an ignore file. If you don’t see the Git menu in Visual Studio see the previous link for information on enabling the feature preview. This post will cover adding a Git ignore file to an existing solution using Visual Studio’s new Git experience.

Fast forward to today and Visual Studio has a new Git Experience in preview which alters this process. Though it is an old post, it holds up through the current version of Visual Studio. A few years ago I wrote a post covering how to Add Git Ignore to an existing Visual Studio Project which was using Visual Studio 2015 I believe.

Visual studio git ignore