Why Can't I Uninstall Riot Vanguard
Hello there, I've been having a bug with the Riot anit-cheat system while playing Valorant. It told me to restart my client, etc. So, I looked up this error, and I was trying to reinstall everything. However, I can't uninstall Riot Vanguard. I've tried everything, but it says that some files are still running. Is there any way to fix this? Thanks!
Best Answered by
Oliver· Answered on Jul 10, 2025
There are a few common reasons why Riot Vanguard, the anti-cheat system for Valorant, may not uninstall properly:
- Vanguard is designed to run in the background with a kernel mode driver component.
- Some Vanguard files may be in use by other processes, blocking the uninstall.
To successfully uninstall Riot Vanguard, you should first disable or stop the Vanguard service. If this doesn't help, please follow the steps below to uninstall Vanguard in Safe Mode. This prevents Vanguard from automatically restarting.
Step 1. Click the Start icon and select "Settings" > "Recovery."
Step 2. Click "Restart now" in the "Advanced startup" tab.
Step 3. Then, go to "Troubleshoot" > "Advanced options" > "Startup Settings" > "Restart."
Step 4. Press "4" or "F4" to access Safe Mode and then go to "Add or Remove Programs" and uninstall Riot Vanguard.
Step 5. After this, run Command Prompt as administrator. Then, enter the following command lines to delete relevant data:
- sc delete vgc
- sc delete vgk
Step 6. Reboot your computer again and manually delete any remaining Riot Vanguard folders, typically in C:\Program Files.
Or, you can use a third-party program uninstaller like EaseUS Todo PCTrans to uninstall Vanguard with a few simple clicks.
Here's how to use a program uninstaller to remove Riot Vanguard:
Step 1. Open EaseUS Todo PCTrans and go to the "App Management" tab.
Step 2. Hit "Start" to get an app list of your PC.
Step 3. Find Riot Vanguard and click on "Uninstall" to remove it.
If you are planning to uninstall the Riot client, the article below can help.
Related article: How to Uninstall Valorant and Disable Riot Vanguard
