Git checkout and reset on Windows occasionally shows random files have changed

Question

Often when I do a checkout of a different branch, or a reset, I will get \'permission denied\' errors from windows for one to a dozen files - but the particular files vary f

Answer 1

You can begin with a:

 GIT_TRACE=1

But it may not display much more than your original message regarding this file.

The usual cause is some opened editor which wants to reload the files when changed, and that can conflict with git's file manipulations.
That means: the usual strategy is to repeat your git command after having close as many other applications as you can.

I haven't found anyone describing similar behavior

See this thread for instance, ot this one, both on Cygwin.
What version of Git are you using (Git on Cygwin, or MSysGit, in a Cygwin session or a Dos session?)