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By default, Windows Explorer will display .gitignore when in fact the file name is .gitignore.txt.
Git will not use .gitignore.txt
And you can't rename the file to .gitignore, because Windows Explorer thinks it's a file of type gitignore without a name.
Non command line solution: you can rename a file to .gitignore. and it will create .gitignore
Also in your \.git\info projects directory there is an exclude file that is effectively the same thing as .gitignore (I think). You can add files and directories to ignore in that.