I recently changed my programming workspace on my computer. I created a directory C:\programming which contains everything programming related, tools, compilers, libs, codebases, etc.
I wanted a default structure that I can use everywhere I want, so I thought, why not create a git repository of my programming workspace, which I can check out on any new device I want to program on?!
So I did that.
A few days later I started wondering why Git Extensions always opened C:\programming as repository every time I started it.
I tried removing C:\programming from the latest repository list, deleting all the config files, searching in the registry for entries... All without success.
How do I change Git Extensions to not always open C:\programming as repository?
If you don't want a default repository to open, change the program execution location to a location that does not have a .git repository in the folder or any parent folder. If you want a default location, change the program execution location to the folder with the repository.
How did I find it out?
I first tried out Process Explorer to see if I can find any open file handles to config files I didn't find yet.
No success.
Then I recorded a process startup with Process Monitor. Yay 450.000 events! First I filtered for everything starting with "C:\programming" Thousands of entries. Then I remembered I should only look for File events with "C:\programming\.git", because a repository is opened. I saved a few of the first events, and went back unfiltered.
That's where I noticed this peculiar pattern.
It looks for \.git and \info, first in the program root directory, then one above that. "NAME NOT FOUND". Then it goes into "C:\programming" and voilá "SUCCESS". So it looks for .git repositories all the way up the file system hierarchy.
The fix was easy after this. I opened up my shortcut for Git Extensions and changed the program execution location to C:\.
No repository can be found in C:\, and there is no parent directory.
As a corollary, just change the execution location to any .git repository you want, and it will be the default one opened when you start Git Extensions.