Valorant’s anti-cheat system can now be turned off from the taskbar

Riot promises to do everything to make sure Valorant is fair and constantly fighting hackers. But some have been concerned about Riot’s anti-cheat software: The company’s Vanguard (anti-cheat) system works at the kernel level, which means it runs when Windows starts and has more system privileges than the software. normal soft.

Riot tries to assuage this concern and most recently, they have added a Vanguard icon in the system tray on Windows. This icon can be clicked to “full disable” or remove Vanguard. If disabled, you must restart your computer (and then run Vanguard again) before playing Valorant. If you delete it, you must reinstall and restart the computer before playing.

Vanguard can be removed like any other software on Windows, so the latest update will help you remove it if you don’t want to.

However, Riot did not change its decision to let it run at the kernel level. According to the February blog, the developer said that hacking software often runs at the kernel level, and that leaving anti-hacking software limited to hackers will make hacks harder to detect. Note that anti-cheat software such as EasyAntiCheat, Battleye and Xigncode3 all use the same Kernel as Vanguard. “This is not news,” Riot wrote.

In response to concerns from players, Riot recently affirmed: It does not steal your information. “Vanguard does not collect or send information from your computer to us,” Valorant anti-cheat head Paul Chamberlain said in early April. When Valorant runs, Vanguard scans for hacks.

Another way to placate public opinion is that Riot is offering a $100,000 reward for “quality reports that demonstrate it can be exploited by Vanguard at the kernel level.”

Chamberlain also offers advice for genuine players who are being blocked by anti-cheat software. If Vanguard detects a “security hole that hacks could exploit”, it could prevent you from playing Valorant. But he did not say anything about the vulnerability, because giving out detailed information could “give an implicit signal to hack software developers through”. Riot will provide more information, but for now, “you may have to update some unsafe software or drivers” if you have problems.

Valorant just released a big patch, and the ranking system is coming soon. The game is still in closed beta, but with this progress, it seems that the main launch time will not be far away. The game schedule is expected to fall this summer.