Daniel Banck
Webentwicklung – Webdevelopment
Webentwicklung – Webdevelopment
This is a guide for all the Windows users (not me) out there.
It will explain how to work with a github repository under windows using TortoiseGit.
Let’s get started. At this point you should be a collaborator or owner of a github repository.
Download TortoiseGit from here.
Install it like any other program. There are no special settings, just keep on clicking ‘next’.
Now download msysgit from here.
During this installation you have to set some important settings. Please be sure that you set them correctly.
After the successful installation of both programs continue with the generation of private and public SSH-key.
To do this you have to start ‘PuTTY Key Generator’ – find it in Start – Programs – TortoiseGit
After it’s done you see your freshly generated ssh public key.
You can define a passphrase at this step, but it isn’t required.
You can copy the key out of the box and add it to your github account.

Now your ready to create a local repository. Create an empty folder and right-click into it. Choose ‘Git Create repository here’


Here you click ‘Add New’ and paste the github ‘Your Clone URL’ into the url field.
Select the putty private key we created before, too.
Now we’re ready to pull for the first time.
Select ‘Pull’ from the TortoiseGit menu.

For ‘remote’ select the ‘origin’ we added before.
Be sure that ‘AutoLoad Putty Key’ is checked and for ‘Remote Branch’ ‘master’ is selected (type it if you can select it).
Now click you and we’re down.
You should all the repository files now if you did everything correctly.
Part 2 – Commiting & Merging is coming soon.
November 23, 2009 - 2:13 pm
Thank you very much, did not know how to start using this program
January 8, 2010 - 7:05 pm
Thanks a lot for this. I’ve been struggling to get Tortoisegit working for a while – I mostly left everything at default in the git install and figured it was a tortoisegit problem.
Everything working now though!
February 17, 2010 - 5:17 am
This was great! I’m looking forward to seeing part two!