Can You Play Valorant Without Secure Boot?

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Key notes

  • As you probably already know, trying to play Valorant on Windows 11 requires TPM 2.0.
  • Secure Boot is also a necessity if you desire to take Riot's latest title for a little test run.
  • However, there are cases where you will have to turn these security features on yourself.
  • The main reason why Riot Games took this decision, is the fight against online cheaters.
valorant secure boot

There’s still a lot of confusion about Windows 11, despite it already being released this month, and one of the biggest issues is with the new OS’s TPM 2.0 requirement to protect against firmware attacks.

While this security feature can be bypassed to run Windows 11, Riot Games and Valorant have already begun to enforce the measure, thus PCs running Windows 11 without TPM 2.0 cannot run Valorant.

No Secure Boot, no TPM, no Valorant

Some users have begun to report that trying to play Valorant results in them getting error messages that state the current build of Riot’s anti-cheat service Vanguard requires both TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot enabled.

And, after being warned, players are quickly kicked out of the game.

The main reason Riot enforced this is that the Trusted Platform Module firmware system makes it far harder for players to cheat, as cheaters who get banned will not be able to immediately spoof a new hardware ID. 

Given how useful it is for developers, it’s also entirely possible that the TPM 2.0 requirement won’t stay isolated to Windows 11 for Valorant, since Riot is quite able to enforce it on Windows 10, too.

Will Valorant work after I activate Secure Boot?

The answer is yes, and you should consider doing this before even trying to run the game itself.

Just open your Command Prompt, run it as administrator, and type mbr2gpt, Press enter and your drive should be converted to gpt without data loss.

Experts actually expect more and more titles to be playable only if such security features are enabled on the machine in question.

Judging by the way things are shaping, we are definitely moving towards a more secure online era, and we surely won’t be able to avoid these security measures forever.

Have you managed to successfully install and play Valorant on your Windows 11 powered device? Share your experience with us in the comments section below.

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