Riot Games is changing how its controversial Vanguard anti-cheat software operates for League of Legends and Valorant players. Starting today, the anti-cheat will shift from an omnipresent background service to an “on-demand” system for users with sufficiently secured PC hardware.
Previously, Vanguard was designed to launch the moment you booted your PC, running quietly in the background until your system shut down. This kernel-mode approach often drew criticism for its deep level of system access. With this update, the driver component will only activate when you are actively playing a game and will terminate once your session ends.
- Rollout: Update is live today.
- New Feature: On-demand anti-cheat session support.
- Eligibility: Approximately 35% of players currently meet the security requirements for the new mode.
- Incompatibility: Roughly 3% of players are on hardware that does not meet the necessary criteria.
How to Enable On-Demand Vanguard
Riot’s anti-cheat chief, Phillip Koskinas, explained that the transition is made possible by modern security features built into Windows and contemporary hardware. For the feature to work, your system must meet a specific “Pre-Check” criteria. If your hardware qualifies, the option will appear automatically after today's update.
To qualify for the new on-demand mode, your machine must have the following features enabled:
- Windows 11 25H2 or later
- UEFI Secure Boot
- TPM 2.0
- VBS and HVCI
- IOMMU
For players who do not currently meet these requirements, Riot is not forcing any changes. The company stated that Vanguard will continue to operate as it has for the foreseeable future while the ecosystem matures. If you are comfortable with the current setup, you can simply ignore the update and continue playing as you have for the past few years.
Why the Change Took Time
According to Koskinas, this move was delayed until both Windows and PC hardware manufacturers reached a point where they could provide sufficient cryptographic verification of boot processes. “The resulting oven-fresh security features require newer hardware components and newer versions of Windows,” Koskinas noted, adding that Riot collaborated with the Xbox OS Security Team at Microsoft to implement the changes natively within the Windows kernel.
While Vanguard remains a kernel-level tool, Riot emphasized that it plans to keep these security requirements optional for most players, reserving stricter mandates for high-ranking competitive segments or those using unconventional devices. As AI-driven botting continues to evolve, Riot expects to refine its anti-cheat efforts further, though the company prefers to incentivize security rather than mandate it for the entire player base.