If you’re on the verge of uninstalling Valorant, then you might not have found the game’s action up to your speed. However, removing the game from your computer entirely can be a complicated process. In this guide, we will be showing you how to uninstall Valorant & anti-cheat.
How to Uninstall Valorant’s Game Files
Valorant’s anti-cheat Vanguard was and still is very controversial for a lot of people. Due to the anti-cheat running at the kernel level, a lot of newcomers have been hesitant about allowing Vanguard on their personal computers.
If you have gotten uncomfortable with the presence of Vanguard on your PC or just want to remove the game, follow the steps below to uninstall Valorant.
- Open up your start menu and search for “Add or Remove Programs”.
- Scroll down until you see “Riot Vanguard” and click on uninstall.
- A confirmation dialogue will pop-up. Confirm that you want to remove Riot Vanguard.
- Go back to “Add or Remove Programs”.
- Sift through the list for Valorant.
- Click uninstall and wait until the process is complete.
NOTE: If you are running an older version of Windows (Windows 8, or 8.1), you will have to open up Control Panel and find “Programs”. Here, click on “Uninstall a Program”, and you will see the list of programs that you can remove as mentioned above.
Considering everything goes smoothly, you will have removed Valorant completely from your PC. But, if you’re still left with vgk.sys in your PC, then follow the steps below.
Unable to Remove vgk.sys
In some cases, players have not been able to remove Vanguard from their system entirely. If vgk.sys is in the installation directory despite following the steps above, there are a few methods you can use to try removing Vanguard.
Removing vgk.sys through Command Prompt
- Hold down the Windows button and press R.
- Type in “cmd”.
- In the prompt, type “sc delete vgc” and press enter.
- After this, type “sc delete vgk”.
- Restart your computer.
- Browse to the installation folder of Vanguard and delete it completely.
Safe-Mode Removal
- Start your computer in safe-mode.
- Browse to the location of ‘vgk.sys’ and change the file extension to .txt from .sys.
- Doing so, Windows will ignore the file on startup.
- Start your computer normally and simply delete the file.
Is Vanguard Safe to Have on your PC?
Vanguard is a very effective method of countering cheaters in Valorant. Almost 97% of the players have never been reported for cheating. To maintain the game’s overall integrity, Riot has gone as far as to implement manual checks on accounts within tournaments to prevent unfairness.
The anti-cheat has two key components, one of which is a device driver that starts up with your operating system, and the second part is a scanner that starts with your game. The driver continues to run even if you are not playing Valorant which had initially sparked a lot of controversies and a debate concerning privacy.
Kernel-level access means that third-party software that plants itself into an OS’ kernel, can be detected and flagged by Vanguard. This is something that is not as easily achievable by other anti-cheats in the market.
That’s good and all, but what about privacy? Riot claims that Vanguard does not and will not collect any information from your personal computer beyond what the League of Legends anti-cheat collects.
We all install various software on our computers almost every day. This is no different, and it is entirely up to you if you want to trust the developers. Granted that the fact Vanguard runs on Ring 0 access of Kernel is definitely something that many people can never be comfortable with. At the end of the day, it’s your call.
How to Delete Valorant Account
If for some unknown reason, you’d like to delete your Valorant account, then you should know that it’s entirely possible. It’s a pretty addictive game, and if it’s getting a little too much in the way of your real life, then it’s understandable that you would want to divert yourself.
Should that be the case, then follow the steps below to permanently delete your Valorant account.
Log Into your Valorant Account
Go to Valorant’s website and go to the “Support” page. You can go there by simply clicking here. Here, log into your account, and you will then be able to submit a ticket directly to support.
Create a Ticket
Deleting your account requires you to submit a ticket to Riot Games. Click on the “Submit a Ticket” option located at the top left corner of your screen.
For the request type, select “Account Management, Data Requests, or Deletion.”
Fill Out the Information
Write down everything the ticket asks of you, including a description, your region and any attachments that you might want to present. Note that you really don’t need to add any additional information. Simply mentioning that you’d like to delete your account is more than enough.
Within a few hours, or maybe a day or two, your account should be deleted once your request gets accepted.
NOTE: If you ever decide to change your mind, you can prevent the deletion from happening within 30 days. However, the account can not be re-obtained once the grace period has passed.
Common Problems with Vanguard
Players with Vanguard on their PC have reported that the anti-cheat definitely needs a bit more refinement. There is a chance that while playing Valorant, a few important functions on your PC, like your drivers, might not be working when you’re playing the game.
Soon after Vanguard’s release, though, players could manually disable Vanguard from the system tray by exiting it. However, when you do so, you will have to restart your PC if you want to play Valorant again.
The above-mentioned problems have been reason enough for a lot of players to outright stop playing the game. BSODs and other alarming errors deterred a small percentage of the player base from continuing their competitive journey in Valorant.
Conclusion
All in all, it’s fairly easy to remove every trace of Valorant from your computer. All it takes is a bit of tweaking the control panel and command prompt, and you’re good to go! If you ever feel like getting back into the game temporarily with your friends, you can always head to the website and re-install the game.
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