diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
index 3127aed1d8..e4cd29146a 100644
--- a/Documentation/config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config.txt
@@ -279,6 +279,12 @@ See linkgit:git-update-index[1].
 +
 The default is true (when core.filemode is not specified in the config file).
 
+core.hideDotFiles::
+	(Windows-only) If true, mark newly-created directories and files whose
+	name starts with a dot as hidden.  If 'dotGitOnly', only the `.git/`
+	directory is hidden, but no other files starting with a dot.  The
+	default mode is 'dotGitOnly'.
+
 core.ignoreCase::
 	If true, this option enables various workarounds to enable
 	Git to work better on filesystems that are not case sensitive,
diff --git a/cache.h b/cache.h
index eddf3e8b0c..6b80a17edc 100644
--- a/cache.h
+++ b/cache.h
@@ -701,6 +701,14 @@ extern int ref_paranoia;
 extern char comment_line_char;
 extern int auto_comment_line_char;
 
+/* Windows only */
+enum hide_dotfiles_type {
+	HIDE_DOTFILES_FALSE = 0,
+	HIDE_DOTFILES_TRUE,
+	HIDE_DOTFILES_DOTGITONLY
+};
+extern enum hide_dotfiles_type hide_dotfiles;
+
 enum branch_track {
 	BRANCH_TRACK_UNSPECIFIED = -1,
 	BRANCH_TRACK_NEVER = 0,
diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 0413d5c3cd..a8218e6f0f 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -286,6 +286,49 @@ int mingw_rmdir(const char *pathname)
 	return ret;
 }
 
+static inline int needs_hiding(const char *path)
+{
+	const char *basename;
+
+	if (hide_dotfiles == HIDE_DOTFILES_FALSE)
+		return 0;
+
+	/* We cannot use basename(), as it would remove trailing slashes */
+	mingw_skip_dos_drive_prefix((char **)&path);
+	if (!*path)
+		return 0;
+
+	for (basename = path; *path; path++)
+		if (is_dir_sep(*path)) {
+			do {
+				path++;
+			} while (is_dir_sep(*path));
+			/* ignore trailing slashes */
+			if (*path)
+				basename = path;
+		}
+
+	if (hide_dotfiles == HIDE_DOTFILES_TRUE)
+		return *basename == '.';
+
+	assert(hide_dotfiles == HIDE_DOTFILES_DOTGITONLY);
+	return !strncasecmp(".git", basename, 4) &&
+		(!basename[4] || is_dir_sep(basename[4]));
+}
+
+static int set_hidden_flag(const wchar_t *path, int set)
+{
+	DWORD original = GetFileAttributesW(path), modified;
+	if (set)
+		modified = original | FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN;
+	else
+		modified = original & ~FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN;
+	if (original == modified || SetFileAttributesW(path, modified))
+		return 0;
+	errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+	return -1;
+}
+
 int mingw_mkdir(const char *path, int mode)
 {
 	int ret;
@@ -293,6 +336,8 @@ int mingw_mkdir(const char *path, int mode)
 	if (xutftowcs_path(wpath, path) < 0)
 		return -1;
 	ret = _wmkdir(wpath);
+	if (!ret && needs_hiding(path))
+		return set_hidden_flag(wpath, 1);
 	return ret;
 }
 
@@ -319,6 +364,21 @@ int mingw_open (const char *filename, int oflags, ...)
 		if (attrs != INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES && (attrs & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY))
 			errno = EISDIR;
 	}
+	if ((oflags & O_CREAT) && needs_hiding(filename)) {
+		/*
+		 * Internally, _wopen() uses the CreateFile() API which errors
+		 * out with an ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED if CREATE_ALWAYS was
+		 * specified and an already existing file's attributes do not
+		 * match *exactly*. As there is no mode or flag we can set that
+		 * would correspond to FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN, let's just try
+		 * again *without* the O_CREAT flag (that corresponds to the
+		 * CREATE_ALWAYS flag of CreateFile()).
+		 */
+		if (fd < 0 && errno == EACCES)
+			fd = _wopen(wfilename, oflags & ~O_CREAT, mode);
+		if (fd >= 0 && set_hidden_flag(wfilename, 1))
+			warning("could not mark '%s' as hidden.", filename);
+	}
 	return fd;
 }
 
@@ -350,6 +410,7 @@ int mingw_fgetc(FILE *stream)
 #undef fopen
 FILE *mingw_fopen (const char *filename, const char *otype)
 {
+	int hide = needs_hiding(filename);
 	FILE *file;
 	wchar_t wfilename[MAX_PATH], wotype[4];
 	if (filename && !strcmp(filename, "/dev/null"))
@@ -357,12 +418,19 @@ FILE *mingw_fopen (const char *filename, const char *otype)
 	if (xutftowcs_path(wfilename, filename) < 0 ||
 		xutftowcs(wotype, otype, ARRAY_SIZE(wotype)) < 0)
 		return NULL;
+	if (hide && !access(filename, F_OK) && set_hidden_flag(wfilename, 0)) {
+		error("could not unhide %s", filename);
+		return NULL;
+	}
 	file = _wfopen(wfilename, wotype);
+	if (file && hide && set_hidden_flag(wfilename, 1))
+		warning("could not mark '%s' as hidden.", filename);
 	return file;
 }
 
 FILE *mingw_freopen (const char *filename, const char *otype, FILE *stream)
 {
+	int hide = needs_hiding(filename);
 	FILE *file;
 	wchar_t wfilename[MAX_PATH], wotype[4];
 	if (filename && !strcmp(filename, "/dev/null"))
@@ -370,7 +438,13 @@ FILE *mingw_freopen (const char *filename, const char *otype, FILE *stream)
 	if (xutftowcs_path(wfilename, filename) < 0 ||
 		xutftowcs(wotype, otype, ARRAY_SIZE(wotype)) < 0)
 		return NULL;
+	if (hide && !access(filename, F_OK) && set_hidden_flag(wfilename, 0)) {
+		error("could not unhide %s", filename);
+		return NULL;
+	}
 	file = _wfreopen(wfilename, wotype, stream);
+	if (file && hide && set_hidden_flag(wfilename, 1))
+		warning("could not mark '%s' as hidden.", filename);
 	return file;
 }
 
diff --git a/compat/mingw.h b/compat/mingw.h
index 1de70ffd62..a1808b4e6b 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.h
+++ b/compat/mingw.h
@@ -416,9 +416,6 @@ int mingw_offset_1st_component(const char *path);
 void mingw_open_html(const char *path);
 #define open_html mingw_open_html
 
-void mingw_mark_as_git_dir(const char *dir);
-#define mark_as_git_dir mingw_mark_as_git_dir
-
 /**
  * Converts UTF-8 encoded string to UTF-16LE.
  *
diff --git a/config.c b/config.c
index 21ff89cfb0..096fe03166 100644
--- a/config.c
+++ b/config.c
@@ -915,6 +915,14 @@ static int git_default_core_config(const char *var, const char *value)
 		return 0;
 	}
 
+	if (!strcmp(var, "core.hidedotfiles")) {
+		if (value && !strcasecmp(value, "dotgitonly"))
+			hide_dotfiles = HIDE_DOTFILES_DOTGITONLY;
+		else
+			hide_dotfiles = git_config_bool(var, value);
+		return 0;
+	}
+
 	/* Add other config variables here and to Documentation/config.txt. */
 	return 0;
 }
diff --git a/environment.c b/environment.c
index 2857e3f366..ca72464a98 100644
--- a/environment.c
+++ b/environment.c
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ int core_apply_sparse_checkout;
 int merge_log_config = -1;
 int precomposed_unicode = -1; /* see probe_utf8_pathname_composition() */
 unsigned long pack_size_limit_cfg;
+enum hide_dotfiles_type hide_dotfiles = HIDE_DOTFILES_DOTGITONLY;
 
 #ifndef PROTECT_HFS_DEFAULT
 #define PROTECT_HFS_DEFAULT 0
diff --git a/t/t0001-init.sh b/t/t0001-init.sh
index a5b9e7a4c7..a6fdd5ef3a 100755
--- a/t/t0001-init.sh
+++ b/t/t0001-init.sh
@@ -354,4 +354,34 @@ test_expect_success SYMLINKS 're-init to move gitdir symlink' '
 	test_path_is_dir realgitdir/refs
 '
 
+# Tests for the hidden file attribute on windows
+is_hidden () {
+	# Use the output of `attrib`, ignore the absolute path
+	case "$(attrib "$1")" in *H*?:*) return 0;; esac
+	return 1
+}
+
+test_expect_success MINGW '.git hidden' '
+	rm -rf newdir &&
+	(
+		unset GIT_DIR GIT_WORK_TREE
+		mkdir newdir &&
+		cd newdir &&
+		git init &&
+		is_hidden .git
+	) &&
+	check_config newdir/.git false unset
+'
+
+test_expect_success MINGW 'bare git dir not hidden' '
+	rm -rf newdir &&
+	(
+		unset GIT_DIR GIT_WORK_TREE GIT_CONFIG
+		mkdir newdir &&
+		cd newdir &&
+		git --bare init
+	) &&
+	! is_hidden newdir
+'
+
 test_done
diff --git a/t/t5611-clone-config.sh b/t/t5611-clone-config.sh
index 27d730c0a7..e4850b778c 100755
--- a/t/t5611-clone-config.sh
+++ b/t/t5611-clone-config.sh
@@ -37,4 +37,24 @@ test_expect_success 'clone -c config is available during clone' '
 	test_cmp expect child/file
 '
 
+# Tests for the hidden file attribute on windows
+is_hidden () {
+	# Use the output of `attrib`, ignore the absolute path
+	case "$(attrib "$1")" in *H*?:*) return 0;; esac
+	return 1
+}
+
+test_expect_success MINGW 'clone -c core.hideDotFiles' '
+	test_commit attributes .gitattributes "" &&
+	rm -rf child &&
+	git clone -c core.hideDotFiles=false . child &&
+	! is_hidden child/.gitattributes &&
+	rm -rf child &&
+	git clone -c core.hideDotFiles=dotGitOnly . child &&
+	! is_hidden child/.gitattributes &&
+	rm -rf child &&
+	git clone -c core.hideDotFiles=true . child &&
+	is_hidden child/.gitattributes
+'
+
 test_done