Valorant

Valorant is Riot GamesPublisherRiot GamesRiot Games is the publisher of Valorant and League of Legends, and the developer of Riot Vanguard, the kernel-mode anti-cheat that backs both titles. Founded 2006, owned by Tencent since 2011.2 games in this family →' 5v5 tactical hero shooter, released June 2020. It is one of the most-played competitive PC games in the world, with a global esports circuit (VCT) that has scaled rapidly since launch. Valorant runs through the Riot Client; there is no Steam version.

If you are deciding whether to install Valorant, know that VanguardAnti-cheatRiot VanguardRiot Vanguard is Riot's kernel-mode anti-cheat for Valorant and League of Legends. By default it loads at every Windows boot whether or not a Riot game is running, in contrast to most PC anti-cheats, which load only while their protected game is open. Since June 24, 2026, PCs that pass Riot's optional Vanguard Pre-Check (Windows 11 25H2 or newer with Secure Boot, TPM 2.0, IOMMU, VBS, and HVCI) can switch it to an on-demand mode that starts with a Riot game and stops after play. Its firmware asks differ by game, so this guide records them on each title: Valorant requires TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot on Windows 11, and Riot says League does not require Secure Boot. The user-mode service (vgc.exe) and tray (vgtray.exe) are catalogued in the Field Guide's processes section; the kernel driver, vgk.sys, is not on the public vulnerable-driver list the drivers section folds from. Corrected 2026-10-20: this entry used to say vgk.sys is catalogued in the Field Guide, and listed Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 as Vanguard's own firmware ask. vgk.sys is not catalogued, and that ask is Valorant's, not League's.2 games in this family → runs on every Windows boot by default, unless your PC qualifies for Riot's on-demand mode and you switch it on, and that uninstalling Valorant is the only way to remove it. If you already have Valorant installed, vgc.exeProcessvgc.exeRiot Vanguard service (Valorant and League of Legends anti-cheat)Open plate → and vgtray.exeProcessvgtray.exeRiot Vanguard tray iconOpen plate → in your processes are expected and not a sign of anything wrong.

Installing Valorant installs Riot Vanguard, Riot's kernel-mode anti-cheat. By default, Vanguard loads on every Windows boot whether or not Valorant is open, which is unusual: most PC anti-cheats load only while their protected game is running. Since June 24, 2026, PCs that pass Riot's optional Vanguard Pre-Check (Windows 11 25H2 or newer with Secure Boot, TPM 2.0, IOMMU, VBS, and HVCI) can switch it to an on-demand mode that starts with a Riot game and stops after play; Riot says about 35 percent of players already qualify. The user-mode service (vgc.exe) and tray icon (vgtray.exe) are both catalogued in the Field Guide's processes section. The kernel driver (vgk.sys) is not currently catalogued in the drivers section because it is not on the LOLDrivers public vulnerable-driver list. On Windows 11, Valorant requires TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot. Vanguard is removed only by uninstalling the Riot game that brought it; there is no standalone uninstaller. Riot can also apply a VAN: RESTRICTION to an account or a hardware ID when it detects suspicious hardware behavior or statistical anomalies; it asks the player to enable Secure Boot, VBS, or IOMMU, or to update motherboard firmware, and Riot says a warning "doesn't necessarily mean we suspect you of cheating."

Riot Games has been publicly transparent about Vanguard's design through its Player Support documentation and direct communications from its anti-cheat lead. No public CVE has been assigned to Vanguard's components as of this writing. The always-on kernel posture has been controversial in the PC community since Vanguard's 2020 launch, and that controversy is documented in mainstream gaming press (Ars Technica, PC Gamer, Eurogamer). Riot Games has been owned by Tencent since 2011, a fact worth noting when considering the broader publisher context. In December 2025 Riot reported a pre-boot firmware flaw that let DMA devices act before Windows protections were up, and ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock published BIOS updates for it. In May 2026 a Vanguard update that enforced IOMMU on accounts flagged for DMA cheat devices drew claims of bricked hardware, which Riot said it "would not and cannot" do.