Riot Games is giving League of Legends and Valorant players a choice: let Vanguard’s kernel-level driver run all the time, or only when you’re actually playing.
The new feature, called Vanguard Pre-Check, uses Windows security improvements Riot developed with Microsoft’s Xbox OS Security Team. Instead of loading at boot, the driver activates when you launch a Riot game and shuts down when you’re done.
The key is a Windows feature called Runtime Driver Attestation Report. It maintains a secured list of all drivers loaded since boot, so Vanguard can verify nothing malicious sneaked in before the game started — without running 24/7.
There are requirements. You need Windows 11 25H2, UEFI Secure Boot enabled, TPM 2.0, Virtualization-Based Security, HVCI, and IOMMU turned on. If that sounds like a lot, don’t worry — about 35% of players already meet these requirements and can switch on-demand mode immediately after the next update.
The other 65% will need to dig into BIOS settings to enable some of these features. Riot says it’s entirely optional. Vanguard’s always-on mode still works fine if you’d rather not mess with it.
