The short answer is no. The long answer involves kernel-level drivers, billion-dollar cheating industries, and a fundamental shift in how PC gaming handles security. Let’s break down exactly what VALORANT’s Secure Boot requirement is, why it exists, and how to fix it without compromising your PC’s safety. To understand Secure Boot, you first have to understand the enemy. In the early 2010s, cheating software was relatively simple. Bots would read pixel colors; aimbots would move your mouse. Traditional anti-cheat software (like Easy Anti-Cheat or BattlEye) worked by scanning the game’s memory .
For many players, this felt like a violation. “Why does a video game need to control my BIOS settings?” others asked. “Is Riot spying on me?”
Check if you are running "Custom Mode" for Secure Boot. Switch it to "Standard Mode". Also, ensure your boot drive is GPT formatted (not MBR). The Future: Is This the New Normal? The Secure Boot requirement for VALORANT is not an anomaly—it is the canary in the coal mine. Microsoft already requires it for Windows 11. Epic Games is experimenting with stricter kernel enforcement for Fortnite. Even Call of Duty ’s Ricochet anti-cheat is moving toward firmware-level checks.
Without Secure Boot, a cheat could load a rootkit into the UEFI. Vanguard would look at the running system, see no anomalies, and let the cheater play. With Secure Boot on, that UEFI rootkit is stopped before it ever reaches the RAM. The backlash against the Secure Boot requirement was fierce. Players took to Reddit and Twitter with valid concerns: