Configure Visual Studio to use system-installed Git.exe

Question

Visual Studio 2017 ships with its own version of Git. Unfortunately, it doesn\'t have support for SSH and it doesn\'t include a root certificate for the issuer for SSL

Answer 1

This may be a little bit late but just in case others come looking for this information and end up here, you can tell Visual Studio 2017/2019 to use the system installed version of Git by doing the following:

1. Open up Visual Studio, click on the Tools menu item at the top.
2. Select Options at the bottom of the list.
3. In the search box for Visual Studio options search for Git
4. Under the External Web Tools section, find the two entries that contain: $(DevEnDir)\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\TeamFoundation\Team Explorer\Git\cmd $(DevEnDir)\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\TeamFoundation\Team Explorer\Git\mingw32\bin

Please note this screenshot was found on google because I don't have my computer on me for actual screenshots. So it may appear a bit different.

5. Replace these with the location of your system installed version of git.

   Example of step five would be something like:

   C:\Program Files\Git\bin

   C:\Program Files\Git\mingw64\bin

6. Finally, you will need to completely close down Visual Studio. I would recommend an actual restart just to play it safe because sometimes it doesn't see those changes even after re-opening Visual Studio.