### Please describe the problem.


### What steps will reproduce the problem?

$ git init                                                                                             
Initialized empty Git repository in /cygdrive/c/Temp/.git/                                             
                                                                                                       
$ git-annex init                                                                                       
init                                                                                                   
  Detected a filesystem without fifo support.                                                          
                                                                                                       
  Disabling ssh connection caching.                                                                    
                                                                                                       
  Detected a crippled filesystem.                                                                      
                                                                                                       
  Disabling core.symlinks.                                                                             
                                                                                                       
  Enabling direct mode.                                                                                
fatal: You are on a branch yet to be born                                                              
git-annex.exe: git [Param "checkout",Param "-q",Param "-B",Param "annex/direct/master"] failed         
                                                                                                       
$ git checkout -B annex/direct/master                                                                  
fatal: You are on a branch yet to be born                                                              

### What version of git-annex are you using? On what operating system?

Running under cygwin bash

$ git --version
git version 1.7.9

$ git-annex version
git-annex version: 5.20140421-g78d6aa1
build flags: Assistant Webapp Webapp-secure Pairing Testsuite S3 WebDAV DNS Feeds Quvi TDFA CryptoHash
key/value backends: SHA256E SHA1E SHA512E SHA224E SHA384E SKEIN256E SKEIN512E SHA256 SHA1 SHA512 SHA224 SHA384 SKEIN256 SKEIN512 WORM URL
remote types: git gcrypt S3 bup directory rsync web webdav tahoe glacier hook external

> [[fixed|done]]; documented the needed version of git on the windows
> install page. --[[Joey]]
