Riot now lets you enable its anti-cheat when you want to

Riot Games enabled an on-demand mode for its Vanguard anti-cheat software for League of Legends and Valorant players starting today. This new feature, called "Vanguard Pre-Check," allows players with compatible hardware to choose when the kernel-level driver launches, rather than it being always-on. Previously, Vanguard's driver would start automatically when the player's system booted up, a design choice that raised privacy concerns among some users. The on-demand option means the Vanguard driver will only activate when a player explicitly launches a Riot Games title that requires it. This change aims to provide players with more control over their system's resources and privacy while still maintaining robust protection against cheating in Riot's competitive games. The company stated that this update is for players who opt into "pre-boot security mechanisms and Windows' own native protection features."