If you follow the Valorant scene, you have almost certainly heard about its anti-cheat system, Vanguard. Vanguard is the in-house anti-cheat software developed by Riot Games specifically for Valorant. It was built from the ground up in two parts: a kernel-level driver and a client that checks for cheats while Valorant is running.
Why Is the Community Having Issues With Vanguard?
During first install, Vanguard is installed alongside Valorant, requiring a reboot before you can play. This is because the Vanguard driver needs to be loaded at the OS level. For an anti-cheat system, Vanguard is unusually intrusive in how it scans and manages potential threats on your PC. It runs from the moment you boot, constantly monitoring all active processes whether you are playing Valorant or not.
While that is good for competitive integrity, it grants unprecedented access to your system and raises privacy risks. Until community pressure forced a change, there was no way to turn it off.
“The Vanguard driver does not collect or send any information about your computer back to us,” Riot Anti-cheat lead Paul Chamberlain said in a Reddit post addressing community concerns. “Any cheat detection scans will be run by the non-driver component only when the game is running.” Riot Games’ Vanguard privacy policy provides further detail.
Privacy concerns aside, players have also reported Vanguard killing critical system processes and user applications required for hardware components to function or to monitor devices.
Players have shared Vanguard horror stories on Reddit. A few examples:
- Vanguard disables MSI Afterburner, a utility for overclocking your graphics card
- Player blocked from using mouse and keyboard
- Vanguard causes the blue screen of death on Windows 10 PCs
Experiencing an “Error Code 43”? See our guide to fixing this here.
What Is a Kernel-Level Driver?
A kernel-level driver is software installed at the lowest level of your operating system. Typically, user-installed software (things that did not come from the manufacturer) is not installed at such a low level. The most common software operating at this level is antivirus.
In recent years, cheats have been installed in various games using exploits at the ring 0 level of Windows. To combat this, Vanguard also runs at ring 0, monitoring known exploit methods and preventing other code from executing at that level.
How Can You Protect Your Data While Playing Valorant?
The short answer: not much. You have to trust that Riot Games will not use your data in a personally identifiable way and that their servers are secure. If an unauthorized individual were able to access Riot’s servers, they could theoretically gain control over Vanguard and, in turn, total control over your PC—including documents, passwords and pictures.
The longer, more technical answer involves a few options. Following community outcry, Riot Games added several features to Vanguard granting increased player control.
Note: Valorant cannot be played if Vanguard is not running.
Temporarily Turn Off Vanguard
Vanguard can be temporarily disabled from the system tray. If you do not see an icon there, Vanguard is already disabled. This lasts until a complete system reboot.
Uninstall Vanguard
Using the same system tray menu, Vanguard can also be uninstalled. This will require Vanguard to be reinstalled before you can play again. Vanguard reinstalls automatically when you launch Valorant, and like first install, this requires a PC restart to initialize.
As Vanguard is necessary for Valorant to run, there is no workaround to play while it is not installed or enabled. Attempting to modify Vanguard’s behavior or system permissions can result in a permanent ban from Riot Games.
What If You Play Valorant a Lot and Do Not Want to Uninstall Anything?
For most players, the only other option is to move all personally identifiable files to a separate hard drive and physically disconnect it while Vanguard is running. Alternatively, you can create a secondary partition on your existing drive, install a second operating system there, and install Vanguard only on that partition.
Neither solution is ideal, but not much else can be done to protect your data, since attempting to block Vanguard from having full access over your files will result in Valorant refusing to launch.
It is considered best practice to disable Vanguard when you are not playing Valorant, as players have reported it affecting FPS in other games.
Riot Games has also offered a bounty of up to $100,000 through HackerOne to anyone who can bypass Vanguard.
If You Sacrifice Data Privacy, Can You at Least Play a Game Without Cheaters?
Sadly, no. Despite the measures Vanguard takes to maintain competitive integrity—which Riot Games has leaned on heavily in marketing—the system has already been bypassed by cheaters. Aimbots and ESP have made their way into the game. A clip posted by Twitch streamer GoldenHand7 shows how destructive these cheats can be.
That said, the difficulty of developing cheats for Vanguard means Valorant likely has a lower cheater population than other major FPS titles such as CS:GO, Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege and Apex Legends. The kernel-level barrier raises the cost and complexity of cheat development significantly, which is the trade-off Riot Games is asking players to accept.