System restart required: Vanguard isn't loaded yet

Your game requires a system restart to play. Please restart your computer.

Expected once, a problem after that

You'll see this the first time Vanguard, Riot's anti-cheat, goes onto a PC, and again whenever it gets reinstalled. Until you restart, the Play button stays locked. One restart is usually all it takes.

It turns into an actual fault when the message outlives the reboot and keeps coming back no matter how many times you restart. Riot's reading is that something is stopping Vanguard from starting up properly, and its first move is the small boot status file Vanguard keeps in the Windows folder.

The article sits in Riot's general support section, so the same fix applies to VALORANT (both games run on Vanguard). A numbered VAN code is a separate case with its own article; VAN 57, for one, is Vanguard failing to run at all.

Riot's fix, in Riot's order

Riot puts deleting the boot status file first. Restart after each step and check whether Play unlocks.

1. Delete vgkbootstatus.dat

   Vanguard writes this small file at boot to record whether it started properly. If it's stuck in a bad state, the same error comes back every restart. Close the game and client, open C:\Windows in File Explorer, search for vgkbootstatus.dat, delete it and restart. Vanguard makes a fresh one.

   Riot's guide: Delete vgkbootstatus.dat

2. Do a clean boot

   This switches off every non-Microsoft service for one boot, so you can tell whether something in the background is the problem.

   1. Press Win+R, type msconfig and press Enter.
   2. On the Services tab, tick Hide all Microsoft services first (skip it and you'll switch off parts of Windows).
   3. Click Disable all, then tick vgc again so Vanguard still starts.
   4. Apply, OK, restart, and test.

   Some programs ignore a clean boot anyway, third-party antivirus and networking tools most of all. If the error goes away, turn services back on a few at a time until it returns, and you've found it.

   Riot's guide: Do a clean boot

3. Run the game on Windows itself, not inside a virtual machine

   Vanguard refuses to run inside VirtualBox, VMware, Parallels or any other virtualized setup. The game and Vanguard have to be installed on a normal Windows install on the PC itself.

4. Let the Riot Client through your firewall

   Add exceptions for the Riot Client and the game in Windows Defender Firewall and in any third-party firewall you run. Riot's firewall guide lists the exact files.

   Riot's guide: Let the Riot Client through your firewall

5. Take third-party antivirus out of the picture

   If you've added an antivirus beyond the one built into Windows, disable it and restart. If the error stays, uninstall it for the test, since some of these keep running when they claim to be off. Windows Security covers you in the meantime.

   Riot's guide: Take third-party antivirus out of the picture

If none of that clears it, Riot's advice is a support ticket. Mention how many restarts you've done and that the boot status file was already deleted, so they don't send you back to the start.

Related errors

• VAN 57
• VAN 138
• vgk.sys BSOD
• Failed to launch

Source: Riot Games Player Support, How to Fix "Your game requires a system restart to play", updated March 9, 2026. Riot's steps are paraphrased here, not copied; checked September 25, 2026.