diff --git a/components/dashboard/src/settings/Preferences.tsx b/components/dashboard/src/settings/Preferences.tsx
index 9ffa83ac23f136..efad8db1e4fb94 100644
--- a/components/dashboard/src/settings/Preferences.tsx
+++ b/components/dashboard/src/settings/Preferences.tsx
@@ -90,7 +90,6 @@ export default function Preferences() {
         const additionalData = user?.additionalData || {};
         additionalData.dotfileRepo = value;
         await getGitpodService().server.updateLoggedInUser({ additionalData });
-        setDotfileRepo(value);
     };
 
     return <div>
@@ -162,10 +161,13 @@ export default function Preferences() {
                 </SelectableCard>
             </div>
             <h3 className="mt-12">Dotfiles <PillLabel type="warn" className="font-semibold mt-2 py-0.5 px-2 self-center">Beta</PillLabel></h3>
-            <p className="text-base text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">Customise every workspace using dotfiles. Add a repo below which gets cloned and installed during workspace startup.</p>
-            <div className="mt-4">
-                <h4>Repo</h4>
-                <input type="text" value={dotfileRepo} onChange={(e) => actuallySetDotfileRepo(e.target.value)} className="w-full" />
+            <p className="text-base text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">Customize workspaces using dotfiles.</p>
+            <div className="mt-4 max-w-md">
+                <h4>Repository URL</h4>
+                <input type="text" value={dotfileRepo} className="w-full" placeholder="e.g. https://github.com/username/dotfiles" onChange={(e) => setDotfileRepo(e.target.value)} />
+                <button onClick={() => actuallySetDotfileRepo(dotfileRepo)}>
+                    Save Changes
+                </button>
             </div>
         </PageWithSubMenu>
     </div>;
diff --git a/components/supervisor/pkg/supervisor/supervisor.go b/components/supervisor/pkg/supervisor/supervisor.go
index 2be33a9dd95355..0e319166bc45ca 100644
--- a/components/supervisor/pkg/supervisor/supervisor.go
+++ b/components/supervisor/pkg/supervisor/supervisor.go
@@ -478,6 +478,11 @@ func installDotfiles(ctx context.Context, term *terminal.MuxTerminalService, cfg
 
 		// no installation script candidate was found, let's try and symlink this stuff
 		err = filepath.Walk(dotfilePath, func(path string, info fs.FileInfo, err error) error {
+			if strings.Contains(path, "/.git") {
+				// don't symlink the .git directory or any of its content
+				return nil
+			}
+
 			homeFN := filepath.Join("/home/gitpod", strings.TrimPrefix(path, dotfilePath))
 			if _, err := os.Stat(homeFN); err == nil {
 				// homeFN exists already - do nothing