Riot Games’ Vanguard anti-cheat will support the new Windows 11. The anti-cheat has started enforcing both TPM (Trusted Platform Module) and Secure boot for those playing on Windows 11. This is the first anti-cheat that is heading in the right direction, ensuring a competitive and entertaining gaming scene. While some of you are unaware, TPM and Secure Boot were both dropped from the list of requirements by Microsoft, as they are no longer required to install Windows 11. How would this traverse into Riot Games’ plan?
The information was revealed by Anti-Cheat Police Department’s official Twitter profile. As security backed by a hardware root-of-trust, the Trusted Platform Module is a dedicated microcontroller designed to secure hardware through integrated cryptographic keys. The Trusted Platform Module is a security chip on the motherboard that makes the PC tamper-resistant. From there, enforcing TPM and Secure Boot on Windows 11 turns out to be a good practice as we’re heading in the future.
Valorant has started to enforce both TPM and Secure boot if YOU are playing on Windows 11 to ensure a trusted platform when playing Valorant. @RiotVanguard team yet again leading the anti-cheat industry in the right direction for competitive integrity pic.twitter.com/qgTM1yNqdA
— Anti-Cheat Police Department 🕵️ (@AntiCheatPD) September 3, 2021
Spoofing TPM would be impossible due to its nature, which would result in effective hardware bans. Altering the hardware id of your CPU or motherboard would be impossible. Secure Boot, on the other side, won’t allow the startup of untrusted applications on boot. Thanks to TPM and Secure Boot, the gaming future is looking bright, and it seems they will become mandatory very soon.
Until Microsoft drops the support for Windows 10, no one would be pushed to swap to Windows 11, which concerns most honest and non-cheating players. Even though practically, they could enforce the same on Windows 10 too if they want to. What do you think? Does this entail the next anti-cheat era? Let us know in the comments below.
How to activate SECURE BOOT on Gigabyte motherboards?
I have a Gigabyte motherboard and Windows 11. To enable secure boot you will need to do the following.
- Reboot your PC and press Delete or F2 repeatedly to enter BIOS.
- If the BIOS is in “Easy Mode“, switch to “Advanced Mode“
- Go to BOOT.
- Find CSM and disable it.
- After that, Secure Boot will appear as an option just below.
- Enable Secure Boot.
- Save and exit by pressing F10 and YES.
I don’t see this as a good development. It’s further erosion of user controlled general purpose computing.
I agree 100%! Especially because I have Linux duel booted, so secure boot is impossible for me…
good one riot, first it doesnt make any sense because hackers will still cheat in those games, maybe it will be harder to do it long term wise but the developer for those hacks find ways to bypass it.
2nd of all Windows 10 user dont need the requirements and by the statement that in 2025 the support for it is gone, what they gonna do? Ban every Windows 10 machine because the game itself is made for old hardware in the first place – or – “yeah u living in a country that has bad salary or your job doesnt pay you enough? screw you with your intel 4000 or ryzen 1600 machine just buy a new one to be able to play.” not forgetting that according to steam the majority (36%) still using 4 core cpus (most of them are older i5 cpus etc) and base clock between 2,7-2,9ghz
afterall i dont see it as effective, some people still use windows 7 (support ended 2020) and they still released security updates on it)
they basically enforcing in 4 years to switch to windows 11 to play valorant but u cant with old hardware since u need a tpm2.0 chip for it, so buy a new pc for 1000$ in order to play valorant that runs on a i7 2600 with 150+ fps or not.
Thats like saying “oh your phone is 6 years old? ok we close our appstore for your phone cuz its just 2 old”
Hey man, thanks for the comment. It is what it is, I am actually glad to see this moving forward.
I would add that it makes it really difficult to dual boot Windows and Linux. Some people say that there are many “secure-boot compatible linux distro” but people use a distro for a reason. It suits their need in terms of flavour, stability, security, etc. Its not windows that people got to take in shit what Microsoft serves. Its linux! It maybe good for some people but its not good for people with old hardware and people who use linux for daily use.
Same scenario for me. I use Linux as my daily driver, but usually play games on windows 11. That’s impossible now…
I have both TPM & Secure boot enabled, running Windows 11, and Vanguard tells me it’s not enabled and won’t start 🙁
DO THEY NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT TPM AND SECURE BOOT ARE?? It has no effect on hackers/cheaters. TPM and Secure boot is just a stupid thing that Microsoft has made a requirement for, which is forcing people to upgrade their hardware, forcing you to spend more money. Who likes spending money? Trust me. this is not going to make hacking any harder. TPM = Just a security and privacy enhancement thing. Secure boot is just a boot thing that helps stop attacks on your PC. It will make no difference, this is all I know. Riot Games is becoming just as toxic and strict as the gaming community itself… They suck.. Shame on you!
Actually is the complete opposite… I believe this will be a lot better for the whole Valorant community.
TPM might make it a bit harder, but secure boot will make virtually no difference. This is definitely a stupid update.
me too
I enabled my secure boot on windows 11. but my moba doesn’t detect my GPU. anyone know how to fix this issue? how to enable secure boot without compromising my GPU?