Vanguard Pre-Check requirements not met: which check failed and how to pass it

Vanguard Pre-Check

What Pre-Check is

Vanguard normally loads when Windows boots and stays on until you shut the PC down. Pre-Check changes that. Turn it on and Vanguard starts when you open League or VALORANT, then stops again once you're done playing. Riot calls it optional, and it's only offered on PCs that clear a set of Windows security checks.

A "requirement not met" line means one of those checks came back negative. Riot's own Vanguard explainer describes the boot-time version as the usual setup, and Pre-Check as the on-demand option for machines that qualify.

The list your PC has to pass

• Windows 11, version 25H2 or later
• Secure Boot
• TPM 2.0
• IOMMU (Intel names it VT-d, AMD names it AMD-Vi or just IOMMU)
• VBS, short for Virtualization-Based Security
• HVCI, the hypervisor code integrity check Windows labels Memory Integrity

Every one of them has to be on. Five out of six still fails.

Find the one you're missing

Start with the tray. Right-click the Vanguard icon near the clock (it may be hiding behind the little arrow). According to Riot, it flags each requirement still outstanding and points at the support page for it, which saves you checking all six by hand.

Prefer to look yourself? Two Windows tools cover nearly everything:

1. Press Win+R, type winver and press Enter. The box shows your Windows edition and version. Anything older than Windows 11 25H2 fails before the rest matter.
2. Press Win+R again and run msinfo32. On the System Summary page, read Secure Boot State, Kernel DMA Protection and, near the bottom, Virtualization-based security. You want VBS to say Running, with Hypervisor enforced Code Integrity listed among its running services.

TPM isn't on that page. Run tpm.msc and check that the specification version reads 2.0.

How to switch each one on

Windows 11 25H2

Go to Settings, then Windows Update, and install the feature update if it's waiting. A Windows 10 PC can't use Pre-Check at all, so on older hardware this is where the road ends and regular Vanguard is what you keep.

Secure Boot and TPM 2.0

Both live in the BIOS, and both have pages here already, written from Riot's articles: VAN 9003 walks through Secure Boot and VAN 9001 covers TPM. Same switches, same menus.

IOMMU

This is a firmware setting too. Find VT-d on an Intel board, or IOMMU on an AMD one (often tucked inside AMD CBS under NBIO Common Options), set it to Enabled, save and exit. On AMD, Riot also suggests turning on DMA Protection and DMAr Support if your board shows them.

Don't panic if Kernel DMA Protection still says Off afterwards. Riot says Vanguard checks the BIOS setting itself, and that Windows field needs extra hardware support some boards simply don't have. If Windows asks for a restart to finish setting things up, do a full shut down, wait a few seconds, then power back on.

VBS and Memory Integrity

Open Windows Security, then Device security, then Core isolation details, and toggle Memory Integrity on before restarting. If the switch is grayed out or VBS reads "enabled but not running", CPU virtualization is probably off in the BIOS (VT-x on Intel, SVM Mode on AMD). Our VAN RESTRICTION 5 page goes through that case, along with what to do when a driver won't run with Memory Integrity on.

One thing to leave alone

Plenty of Vanguard fixes tell you to set the vgc service to Automatic. Riot's own exception is Pre-Check users, whose Vanguard is meant to start on demand, so skip that step if you've switched Pre-Check on.

For the bigger picture (what Vanguard does, why Riot moved to on-demand, and what players have complained about) there's a longer read in Riot Vanguard explained.

Related errors

• VAN 9001
• VAN 9003
• VAN: RESTRICTION: 5
• VAN: RESTRICTION
• VAN 9005
• System restart required

Source: Riot Games Player Support, Vanguard Pre-Check, updated June 24, 2026. Riot's steps are paraphrased here, not copied; checked October 4, 2026.