What Vanguard On-Demand Mode Is and Why You’d Want It
Vanguard on-demand mode is an optional Riot anti-cheat setup where the kernel-level Vanguard driver runs only while a Riot game is open, instead of loading at Windows startup and monitoring your system in the background all the time, which helps reduce constant overhead and lets your PC breathe when you are not playing Valorant or League of Legends.
If you’ve been annoyed by Vanguard living in your system tray from boot, this is the change you’ve been waiting for. The new mode disables Vanguard’s background presence between play sessions by tying the driver’s runtime to your game time: it launches when you open a Riot title and shuts down once you stop playing. This answers long-standing complaints about always-on monitoring and its impact on stability and resources. The caveat is that you need specific Windows security features turned on before you can switch, and a small slice of older hardware will not qualify at all.
Understanding Vanguard Pre-Check and Hardware Requirements
To get Vanguard on-demand mode, your PC has to pass something Riot calls Vanguard Pre-Check, a group of modern security features that must be enabled before the option appears. At the operating-system level, you need at least Windows 11 25H2, because that is where the Runtime Driver Attestation Report was added and where newer kernel protections live. Under the hood, your system must be running in UEFI mode with Secure Boot, have a Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (TPM), and have virtualization-based security (VBS) and Hypervisor-Protected Code Integrity (HVCI) turned on.
You also need an Input-Output Memory Management Unit (IOMMU), which acts as a firewall between PCIe devices and system memory to block direct memory access abuse. Together, these Vanguard hardware requirements let the anti-cheat check, through TPM-backed driver attestation, which drivers loaded since boot without needing Vanguard to start first. Riot estimates that about a third of players already meet these requirements out of the box, most of the rest can qualify by enabling options in BIOS, and roughly 3 percent would need new hardware to get there. None of this is forced; if you skip it, Vanguard continues behaving like the always-on driver you know.
Step-by-Step: Checking Your PC and Switching to On-Demand
The actual switch to Vanguard on-demand feels like flipping a light, but only once your hardware and Windows install are in order. Think of it as a two-part job: first prove your system is secure enough for Riot’s new trust model, then tell Vanguard to stop camping your taskbar between matches. The order here matters, because on-demand mode will not be offered until Pre-Check passes. Be careful around firmware and security settings; changing the wrong thing in BIOS can stop Windows from booting, so have your motherboard manual handy.
- Update Windows to at least version 11 25H2 so your system supports the Runtime Driver Attestation Report that Vanguard relies on for on-demand mode.
- Confirm your PC is using UEFI mode with Secure Boot enabled, which verifies the Windows bootloader and blocks bootkits when your machine starts.
- Check that a Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (TPM) is present and turned on, since TPM backs the driver attestation Vanguard uses to see what loaded after boot.
- Enable virtualization-based security (VBS) and Hypervisor-Protected Code Integrity (HVCI) so Windows can isolate secure memory and verify kernel code before it runs.
- Ensure your system supports and has an Input-Output Memory Management Unit (IOMMU) active to filter direct memory access from PCIe devices to system memory.
- Restart Windows and run Vanguard’s Pre-Check; once all requirements are satisfied, use the in-client option provided with the update to switch Vanguard from always-on to on-demand so the driver now loads only when a Riot game starts and shuts down when you stop playing.
The gotcha here is that Vanguard cannot toggle most of these security settings for you; they live in firmware menus that differ wildly by manufacturer. Take your time, follow official documentation, and do not spam random switches. Once you have on-demand enabled, the most visible change is that the Vanguard icon no longer sits in your system tray unless a Riot game is running.
What Changes Once Vanguard Runs On-Demand
When Pre-Check passes and you enable Vanguard on-demand mode, the driver component stops launching at Windows startup. Instead, it loads as you open a Riot title like Valorant or League of Legends and shuts down again when you exit, instead of maintaining a constant presence in the background. Riot’s anti-cheat lead even joked that the practical win is giving you back a strip of taskbar pixels because the system-tray icon only appears while a Riot game is active. Underneath that joke is the benefit players asked for: less anti-cheat overhead when you are browsing, working, or playing other games.
It is important to understand what has not changed. Vanguard remains a kernel-level anti-cheat; on-demand mode changes when it runs, not how deep into the system it operates. The new model depends on Windows’s Runtime Driver Attestation Report, which provides a secure, TPM-backed list of drivers loaded since boot that anti-cheat can inspect without being present from the start. This–combined with the hardware requirements–closes the old “who loads first” problem where vulnerable drivers could sneak cheats into the kernel before Vanguard appeared. In other words, you keep the same level of protection against kernel exploits, but with far less time spent under Vanguard’s watch between matches.
Is Vanguard On-Demand Worth Enabling?
If your PC already meets the Vanguard hardware requirements–which it likely does if it is relatively new–on-demand mode is an easy win. You get rid of the always-on driver that has been the central complaint since Vanguard launched with Valorant and later expanded to League of Legends, while keeping the same kernel-level protection during games. According to Riot’s anti-cheat lead, cheaters appear in about 0.7 percent of PC ranked matches across both games, with kernel-level cheating still the cheapest and most common method, so there is no sign Vanguard is going away.
The part to watch for is the setup friction. Enabling Secure Boot, TPM 2.0, VBS, HVCI, and IOMMU may require BIOS updates or careful firmware tweaks, and a small percentage of players are on hardware that can’t meet Pre-Check at all. Riot has kept the system voluntary and hinted that more checks might be added later, especially for high ranks or unusual devices. For now, if you can qualify, turning on Vanguard on-demand mode is a sensible way to align strong anti-cheat with a quieter, smoother everyday PC.
