How can I stop and start TGitCache.exe gracefully

1. Open TortoiseGit Settings > Icon Overlays
2. In section "Status cache" select "None"
3. Click OK

TGitCache.exe will disappear from the process list.

If you need it again, you can turn it on by selecting another option, like "Default". After a click in an explorer window TGitCache.exe will run again.

You can enable a systray icon for TGitCache.

Open TortoiseGit settings and open Advanced page. There set CacheTryIcon to true and restart TGitCache.

Now you have a new TortoiseGit icon in the systray where you can select "Exit" to close TGitCache (it will restart automatically again). You can also select "Disable Status cache" which will set Status cache to None (see https://stackoverflow.com/a/16921151/3906760).

Have you seen this?

https://tortoisegit.org/issue/401

It's a bug report on TortoiseGit that seems to be describing your exact problem.

Basically, it seems that TGitCache.exe shouldn't be doing that, and in the newest versions of TortoiseGit it doesn't. Perhaps you might try upgrading your TortoiseGit?