What Is Riot Vanguard? How Vanguard Anti-Cheat Works

Riot Vanguard is the anti-cheat people argue about most. It is strict, it runs at the deepest level of Windows, and for most of its life it has started before you even open a game. It also matters to Elocarry users who do not play Riot games, because a boot-time anti-cheat on the same PC can stop other software from loading.

What Riot Vanguard is

Vanguard is Riot Games’ in-house anti-cheat. It launched with Valorant in 2020 and came to League of Legends in 2024, so it is now required for both on PC. It has two parts: a kernel driver that does the protecting, and a small tray application that shows its status.

How Vanguard works

A kernel driver that starts at boot

Most anti-cheats load when you start the game. Vanguard’s driver has traditionally loaded when Windows starts. The reasoning is simple: a driver that starts first can watch every driver and program that loads after it, so a cheat cannot slip in earlier and hide. The page on kernel-level anti-cheat explains why that level matters.

Security requirements

Vanguard checks how your PC boots. On Windows 11 it requires TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot, and the game will not start without them:

Blocking risky drivers

Because Vanguard is at kernel level from the start, it also refuses to run beside drivers with known security holes, the kind cheats have abused in the past. Old hardware utilities are sometimes caught by this.

On-demand mode

The biggest complaint about Vanguard has always been that it runs all the time. In June 2026 Riot announced an on-demand mode. On PCs that meet a stricter security bar, including a recent version of Windows 11 with Secure Boot, TPM 2.0, virtualization-based security and IOMMU switched on, Vanguard can start when you launch a Riot game and shut down when you finish, instead of loading at boot. PCs that do not meet the bar keep the original boot-time behaviour.

Vanguard and other software

A boot-time kernel anti-cheat is present whenever the PC is on, even when no Riot game is open. That is why Elocarry’s troubleshooting guides ask you to uninstall Vanguard, along with other boot-time anti-cheats such as FACEIT and ESEA, if the loader will not open or the overlay crashes.

To remove it:

1. Open Windows Settings and go to Apps, then Installed apps.
2. Find Riot Vanguard and choose Uninstall.
3. Restart the PC.

Vanguard reinstalls itself the next time you launch Valorant or League of Legends, and then asks for another restart. Plan your sessions around that rather than switching back and forth.

Why Vanguard is controversial

Vanguard is strict by design, and that is where the arguments come from:

• It runs all the time. Until on-demand mode, the driver loaded at boot whether or not you planned to play.
• It sees a lot. A kernel driver that starts first has a view of everything that loads after it. Riot says it only looks for what matters to cheating; players have to trust that.
• It blocks things. Drivers it considers risky are refused, and that occasionally catches legitimate hardware utilities.
• It needs settings people never touched. TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot sent many players into their firmware for the first time.

The trade, from Riot’s side, is that cheating in Valorant is harder and more expensive than in most shooters. On-demand mode is Riot’s answer to the first complaint, for PCs secure enough to qualify.

Playing Riot games and Elocarry games on one PC

If you play both, the practical routine is simple:

1. Before loading an Elocarry build, make sure Vanguard is uninstalled and the PC has been restarted since.
2. When you want to play Valorant or League, launch it. Vanguard reinstalls and asks for a restart.
3. Before going back to an Elocarry game, uninstall Vanguard again and restart.

If the loader will not open or the overlay crashes, a boot-time anti-cheat still on the PC is one of the first things support checks, so it saves time to rule it out yourself.

Vanguard and Elocarry

We do not sell a build for any Vanguard game. Our Valorant build ran for twelve months before we retired it in 2024, and the farewell post explains why: keeping pace with Vanguard for a single title was no longer sustainable. If you play Valorant or League on the same PC as an Elocarry game, the only thing you need to know is the uninstall step above.