Trouble Starting Valorant on Your Desktop Computer? Uncover the Latest Solutions

Being the second game from Riot after its blockbuster League of Legends, Valorant is surely a must-play for all the FPS fans. But recently, we received many reports saying thatValorant won’t start on PC . If you’re dealing with the same issue, don’t worry. According to our users, you can usually fix it with just a few clicks.

Before you start

Before you go any further, first tryrestarting your PC and see how it goes. Also, you should make sure your PC meets the minimum requirements:

Minimum requirements for Valorant (30 FPS):

If you’ve already done these, you can move on to the advanced troubleshooting below.

Try these fixes

Here’re the advanced fixes for yourValorant not launching issue . You might not need to try them all, just work down the list until you find the one that does the trick.

1. Change your computer resolution
2. Update your graphics driver
3. Run Valorant in compatible mode
4. Run Valorant as Administrator
5. Close all Riot related processes
6. Temporarily disable your antivirus
7. This game is not available on your operating system
8. Release Standby Memory
9. Reinstall Valorant

Fix 1: Change your computer resolution

Manufacturers willstop updating drivers for some GPUs after a period of time, that way they can phase out outdated graphics cards. Therefore some graphics cards might not have decent support for high resolution gaming.

If you’re using an old graphics card, you should tryswitching to a lower computer resolution . Here’s how to do that:

1. Right click on the empty area of your desktop, then select Display settings.
   
2. Under theScale and layout section, select an option from the drop down menu.
   
3. Choose alower resolution.

You can test all the resolution options with Valorant and see which one solve your problem. If this method doesn’t work for you, don’t worry, just try the next one.

Fix 2: Update your graphics driver

This issue can be caused bybuggy or outdated graphics drivers . Some players reported that Valorant won’t launch because their graphics drivers were little out of date. So before trying anything more complicated, firstmake sure you’re using the latest graphics driver .

One option is to update manually: You can visit the manufacturer website (NVIDIA ,AMD orIntel ), then search, download and install the video driver. But if you’re not comfortable playing with device drivers, you can, instead, do it automatically with Driver Easy . It’s a tool that detects, downloads and installs any driver updates your computer needs.

You can update your drivers automatically with either the 7 days free trial or the Pro version of Driver Easy. It takes just 2 clicks, and you get full support and a 30-day money-back guarantee with the Pro version:

1. Download and install Driver Easy.
2. Run Driver Easy and click the Scan Now button. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.
   
3. Click theActivate & Update button next to the flagged device to automatically download and install the correct version of this driver.

Or click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of all the drivers that are missing or out of date on your system (You’ll need the Pro version for this – when you select Update All, you’ll get a prompt to upgrade. If you’re not prepared to purchase the Pro version yet, Driver Easy provides a 7-day trial at no cost, granting access to all Pro features like fast downloads and easy installation. No charges will occur until after your 7-day trial period ends.)

The Pro version of Driver Easy comes with full technical support. If you need assistance, please contact Driver Easy’s support team at [email protected] .

Once you’ve updated your graphics driver,launch Valorant and see if the issue persists.

If this trick doesn’t work for you, simply try the next one.

Fix 3: Run Valorant in compatible mode

Some Windows updates may conflict with Valorant. If that’s the case, you can try tolaunch Valorant in compatible mode . Here’re the steps:

1. On your desktop,right click the Valorant icon and selectProperties .
   
2. Select theCompatibility tab. UnderCompatibility mode section,check the box beforeRun this program in compatibility mode for . If you’re on Windows 10, set it toWindows 8 . If you’re on Windows 8, set it to Windows 7. ClickOK to finish.

3. Restart your computer andlaunch Valorant .

If this solve your problem, congratulations! If not, you can move on to the next fix.

Fix 4: Run Valorant as an Administrator

By default, Windows executes a program as a regular user, which has limited access to some directories.Running Valorant as an Administrator avoids the permission issue. To do so, simply follow these steps:

1. On your desktop,right click the Valorant icon and selectRun as administrator .
   
   If you can launch the game this way , continue to the next step to set Valorant to always run in administrator mode.If the problem persists , please jump to the next method.
2. On your desktop,right click the Valorant icon and selectProperties .
   
3. Select theCompatibility tab. UnderSettings section,check the box beforeRun this program as an Administrator . ClickOK to finish.
4. Launch Valorant and see if you can log in.

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Fix 5: Close all Riot related processes

Some players commented that Valorant won’t start when a process is not working properly. That means you need to exit all the Riot related processes and launch Valorant again. Here’re 3 things you need to do:

1. Right click Task Bar to opentask manager .
   
2. Scroll through all the processes and search for Riot related processes (Those with a Riot or Valorant logo ). If you find any, select them and clickEnd task to stop them.
   (Note youshould not stop theVanguard process. Otherwise you’ll have to restart your computer before launching Valorant again.)
3. When you’ve exited all the riot related processes,launch Valorant and see if you’re still have errors.

If this fix doesn’t work for you, there’s still a last fix you can try.

Fix 6: Temporarily disable your antivirus

If you’re seeing an error telling you Valorant is “unable to start correctly (0xc000005) ” or “couldn’t install a required dependency “, then maybe it’s your antivirus that’s triggering the issue. In this case, you can try disabling it and see how things go.

Here’s an example of how to disable Windows Security:

1. On your keyboard, pressWin+I (the Windows logo key and the I key) to open Windows Settings. ClickUpdate & Security .
   
2. In the left pane, clickWindows Security . Then selectVirus & threat protection . CollageIt Pro
3. Scroll to theVirus & threat protection settings section and click Manage settings .
4. Under the Real-time protection section, click the toggle button and turn it to Off .
   
5. Now test if you can launch Valorant.

If this fix doesn’t help you, turn the antivirus back on and continue to the next method.

Fix 7: This game is not available on your operating system

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Recently we received reports of a Valorant startup error that reads “This game is not available on your operating system “. This error doesn’t seem to be system-related, since players are getting it even on Windows 10. If you’re seeing this error, there’s one fix you can try before reinstalling.

1. On your keyboard, pressCtrl+Shift+Esc to openTask Manager . Then right-clickVALORANT and selectEnd task .
   
2. PressWin+R to invoke the Run box, then type or paste**%localappdata%\VALORANT\Saved** and pressEnter .
   
3. Delete all the files in theConfig andLogs folder. Then restart your PC and check if Valorant launches now.

Fix 8: Release Standby Memory

One common reason Valorant won’t launch is that your PC doesn’t have the available RAM for the game. Windows uses part of the physical RAM as cache, or what is calledStandby Memory . The system might run into issues when standby memory isn’t released on time. In that case, you can clear the standby memory manually and see how it goes.

1. On your keyboard, pressCtrl+Shift+Esc together to openTask Manager . Navigate to thePerformance tab, clickOpen Resource Monitor .
   
2. In Resource Monitor, navigate to theMemory tab. In thePhysical Memory section, you’ll see the current memory usage. Check ifStandby Memory is taking up too much of your total RAM.
3. You can empty the standby memory manually.
   WPS Office Premium ( File Recovery, Photo Scanning, Convert PDF)–Yearly First, downloadEmptyStandbyList . This is a command line tool that can help you empty standby memory.
4. Once downloaded, right click theEmptyStandbyList program and selectRun as an Administrator .
   
5. Go back toResource Monitor and check if the standby memory has been cleared. Then you can check if the issue persists.

(Optional) You can also useTask Scheduler to clear the standby memory automatically. Theoretically, you can achieve the same result with a reboot, but it’ll be a different story while you’re in the middle of the game.

1. Right clickEmptySandbyList.exe and selectProperty .
   
2. Navigate to theCompatibility tab, check the box next toRun this program as an administrator . ClickOK .
   
3. On your keyboard, pressWin+R to invoke theRun box. Type or pastetaskchd.msc and clickOK .
4. In the right pane, selectCreate Task .
   
5. In theName section, type or pasteEmpty Standby Memory . Then clickChange User or Group. …
   
6. In the pop-up window, clickAdvanced… .
   
7. ClickFind Now . In the search results, selectSYSTEM . Then clickOK .
8. ClickOK .
   
9. Navigate to theActions tab, clickNew… .
   
10. Browse and select theEmptyStandbyList.exe program. ClickOK .
11. Then navigate to theTriggers tab, clickNew.. .. Under theAdvanced settings , setRepeat task toevery 10 minutes . Setfor a duration of toIndefinitely .
    ClickOK .
    
12. After finishing the setup, you can selectTask Scheduler Library in the left pane to view the pending tasks.

Fix 9: Reinstall Valorant

So this is the final solution for you: reinstalling Valorant. This is only necessary when you have inconsistent game files, which often happens when you have anunstable network connection . To uninstall Valorant, try these steps:

1. On your keyboard, press thewindows logo key andR at the same time to invoke theRun box. Type “control ” and clickOK to open Control Panel.
   
2. SelectPrograms and Features .
   
3. One at a time,double click Valorant and Riot Vanguard to uninstall them.
   
4. Go to theValorant official website and download the latest version.

That’s it. Hopefully you can launch Valorant without any problems. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment.

• Windows