Alright, so I decided it was time to clear some space off my hard drive, and Valorant, well, I haven’t really played it much lately. Seemed like a simple job, right? Just uninstall it like any other program. Famous last words.
First off, I went the usual route. You know, Settings, Apps, find Valorant, click Uninstall. Standard procedure. Did it work? Of course not. Got some weird error message, something about it still running or needing permission, I don’t even remember exactly because I just clicked ‘OK’ figuring it was a fluke.
So, attempt two. I thought, okay, maybe that Riot Vanguard anti-cheat thing is messing things up. That thing runs deep, always felt a bit sketchy to me, starting up before Windows even finishes loading sometimes. Opened up Task Manager, scrolled through the endless list of processes. Found Vanguard, tried to end the task. It just popped right back up. Tried again. Same thing. It was like whack-a-mole.
This was getting annoying.
I restarted my computer. Sometimes that clears things up. Tried the uninstall again from the Apps list. Nope. Still no dice. Same vague error.
Okay, time for plan C. Maybe Vanguard needs to go first? Went back to the Apps list, found Riot Vanguard listed separately. Clicked Uninstall on that one. It seemed to work… I think? Got a confirmation, needed another restart. So, restarted the machine AGAIN.
After the reboot, I felt optimistic. Went back to Apps, found Valorant, clicked Uninstall… and it actually started! Progress! It chugged along for a bit, then finished. Phew.
But wait, there’s more…
Just to be sure, I checked my C drive. Lo and behold, there was still a Riot Games folder, and inside, some leftover Valorant directories. Not huge, but still there. Why doesn’t the uninstaller clean up after itself properly?
- Had to manually delete the Riot Games folder.
- Then I went hunting in AppData and ProgramData for any other stragglers. Found some more Riot related stuff and deleted that too.
Honestly, it felt like I was performing digital surgery just to get rid of a game. Why does it have to be this difficult? I get the need for anti-cheat, especially in a game like Valorant, but making it this hard to remove feels way over the top. It shouldn’t require multiple restarts, manually killing processes (which didn’t even work reliably), and hunting down leftover files. Makes you wonder what else that Vanguard thing is doing deep in your system if it puts up such a fight on the way out.
Anyway, it seems to be gone now. Hopefully. Took way more effort than it should have. If you’re thinking of uninstalling it, be prepared for a bit of a battle. Make sure you uninstall Riot Vanguard first, then Valorant, and then go hunting for leftovers. Good luck.
