Windows .gitignore template

Thumbs.db is the thumbnail cache. Browsing a folder of images in the file manager with thumbnails enabled is enough to create it, and it holds a small preview of every image in that folder. Newer versions keep the cache centrally instead, but the file still appears on network shares and from older tooling, and a project with an assets directory is the most likely place to find one.

The variants exist for historical reasons. Thumbs.db:encryptable is an alternate data stream name that appears on encrypted volumes, and ehthumbs.db and ehthumbs_vista.db are the media centre equivalents. None of them contain anything you want in a repository, and the image previews inside them are a minor information leak of their own.

desktop.ini is the folder customisation file. It records a custom icon, a localised display name or a folder template, and it is written when someone changes a folder's appearance. The rule is written as [Dd]esktop.ini because the case varies depending on what created it and git patterns are case sensitive.

$RECYCLE.BIN is the recycle bin directory, which appears at the root of any volume including a removable drive holding a checkout. *.stackdump is a crash dump written by the Unix compatibility layer, containing the stack of the process that died.

The installer rules cover *.cab, *.msi, *.msix, *.msm and *.msp. These are packaged installers and patches, and they are build output rather than source in almost every case. *.lnk is a shortcut file, which stores an absolute path to a target on one machine and is therefore useless anywhere else.