If anyone is interested in setting up their system to automatically (or manually) sign their git commits with their GPG key, here are the steps:
windows
cd C:\Program Files (x86)\GNU\GnuPG
.\gpg.exe --gen-key # 4096
.\gpg.exe --list-secret-keys --keyid-format LONG
.\gpg.exe --armor --export 3AA5C34371567BD2