{"id":1615930,"date":"2026-06-24T22:16:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T22:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/A3ntRA9fYqKWwozVLja2EL"},"modified":"2026-06-24T22:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T22:16:17","slug":"you-can-finally-turn-riots-vanguard-anti-cheat-off-when-youre-not-playing-a-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/you-can-finally-turn-riots-vanguard-anti-cheat-off-when-youre-not-playing-a-game\/","title":{"rendered":"You can finally turn Riot’s Vanguard anti-cheat off when you’re not playing a game"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Riot Games is making a big change to its Vanguard anti-cheat system: After an update set to go live today (and which may already be live by the time you read this) it will not launch when your PC boots up, but will instead will be “on demand,” meaning it will only run when playing a game and will shut down once the gameplay is over.<\/p>\n

Vanguard was very controversial<\/a> when it launched in 2020 because it’s “kernel mode” software that, in theory at least, grants Riot access to your PC at an alarmingly deep level. On top of that intrusiveness, it’s also effectively omnipresent: It launches when your PC does, and it runs quietly in the background, doing whatever<\/em>, until you shut down. <\/p>\n

Other games roll with kernel mode anti-cheat, like Genshin Impact<\/a>, Doom Eternal<\/a>, and Call of Duty<\/a> games, but in those cases the anti-cheat only runs when the game is running, and terminates when the game does. Now, finally, Riot will give League of Legends and Valorant players the same option\u2014with some conditions.<\/p>\n

“Starting later today, the universally beloved<\/em> anti-cheat product, Vanguard, will begin to support on-demand sessions from all sufficiently secured PC devices,” Riot’s anti-cheat chief Phillip Koskinas wrote in an update<\/a> announcing the change. <\/p>\n