Riot Games’ anti-cheat software for Valorant, Vanguard, will receive some visual and hardware changes as of today. Vanguard has seen heavy criticism for slowing down some computers and blocking some applications from working altogether.
Riot has pushed to eliminate cheating in Valorant ever since the beta first launched. Their Vanguard software works in the background to prevent cheats from starting up, even before you start the game. One of the complaints from the community is that the software can prevent them from accessing parts of their computer. Riot has come up with a solution to this problem, but with all the hoops players will have to jump through, some may just quit the game entirely.
Vanguard can now be switched off
On Reddit, Riot Games’ 0xNemi addressed the changes coming to the software. Vanguard will now show a system tray icon while it’s running. With this icon, you can turn off Vanguard at any time, but you’ll have to reboot the system to turn the anti-chest back on. While Vanguard is turned off, your system will be in ‘untrusted’ mode and you’ll be unable to play Valorant until Vanguard is switched back on. Thus, every time you turn the anti-cheat off, you will have to reboot in order to play Valorant.
Additionally, if you’d like to uninstall Vanguard, you can do so from the tray as well. Once uninstalled, you’ll be able to freely use your computer for anything the software might have been blocking. However, this doesn’t mean you can continue playing Valorant. Vanguard will re-install itself when Valorant is started and you’ll have to reboot to officially turn the software on.
0xNemi also addressed the fact that Vanguard may block some features on your computer while on. If this happens, you’ll see a notification pop up. Upon clicking the notification, you will see what application was blocked by the software. You can bypass this at any time by uninstalling or turning Vanguard off while you’re not playing Valorant.
If you have additional questions regarding the anti-cheat software, 0xNemi answered some frequently asked questions at the bottom of his Reddit post. Make sure to check it out if you have more questions.
For more Valorant coverage, stay tuned to Daily Esports.
