Why my hgignore does not appear to work?

Question

When I do hg status I see:

[jiewmeng@JM Code]$ hg status
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/Debug/SPA.lib
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/Debug/UnitTesting.exe
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/Debug/UnitTesting.ilk
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/Debug/UnitTesting.pdb
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/EmptyGeneralTesting.suo
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/AST.obj
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/CL.read.1.tlog
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/CL.write.1.tlog
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/DesignExtractor.obj
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/Lib-link.read.1.tlog
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/Lib-link.write.1.tlog
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/Node.obj
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/PKB.obj
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/Parser.obj
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/Query Evaluator.obj
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/Query Processor.obj
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/SPA.Build.CppClean.log
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/SPA.lastbuildstate
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/SPA.log
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/VarTable.obj
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/cl.command.1.tlog
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/lib.command.1.tlog
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/vc100.idb
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/vc100.pdb
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/SPA.vcxproj
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/SPA.vcxproj.filters
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/UnitTesting/Debug/CL.read.1.tlog
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/UnitTesting/Debug/CL.write.1.tlog
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/UnitTesting/Debug/NodeTest.obj
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/UnitTesting/Debug/UnitTest.obj
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/UnitTesting/Debug/UnitTesting.lastbuildstate
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/UnitTesting/Debug/UnitTesting.log
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/UnitTesting/Debug/cl.command.1.tlog
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/UnitTesting/Debug/link.command.1.tlog
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/UnitTesting/Debug/link.read.1.tlog
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/UnitTesting/Debug/link.write.1.tlog
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/UnitTesting/Debug/mt.command.1.tlog
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/UnitTesting/Debug/mt.read.1.tlog
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/UnitTesting/Debug/mt.write.1.tlog
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/UnitTesting/Debug/vc100.idb
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/UnitTesting/Debug/vc100.pdb
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/UnitTesting/source/UnitTest.cpp
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/source/Parser.cpp
M examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/source/Parser.h
A .hgignore
? examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Debug/SPA.write.1.tlog
? examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/SPA/Parser.h
? examples/SampleTestingSolution/EmptyGeneralTesting/UnitTesting/Debug/UnitTesting.write.1.tlog

So I made .hgignore look like

syntax: glob

*.lib
*.tlog
*.log
*.obj
*.tlog
*.idb
*.pdb
*.exe
*.ilk
*.filters

When I do hg status again, I see a similar/non noticeable difference in output. Why? I expected all those to be gone from hg status

Answer 1

If you have already added those files, you need to "hg forget" them before seing the hgignore directives applied.
See "What is the difference between hg forget and hg remove?": hg remove -Af (ie hg forget) will remove them without deleting them from the working directory.
See also this thread:

Un-tracked files show up with a question mark in 'hg status', unless they are matched by the .hgignore file.