Think of your PC like a backstage crew: sometimes too many background apps are jostling for the spotlight, and your game ends up tripping over the cables. A clean boot sends everyone else offstage so only the essentials are left to run the show. It’s one of the basic troubleshooting steps you can perform to make sure no other programs are interfering with your game.
Perform Clean Boot
- Press Windows Key 🪟 + R
- Type msconfig into the Run dialog box
- Press Enter
- Click the Services tab
- ⚠️ Important: Check Hide all Microsoft services
- Click the Disable All button
- Find vgc and check its box to re-enable it
- Click Apply, then click OK
- Restart your computer
Check Active Services Again
Once you're done restarting your computer, perform the step 1 to 6 above again. You should only see Vanguard active, but it's not uncommon to see some additional services ignoring a Clean Boot:
- If your non-Windows Anti-Virus is still showing up active: It's also fairly standard for Anti-Viruses to ignore a Clean Boot, but it's also frequent for them to cause some level of conflict with games in general. To rule this type of conflict out, we advise to temporarily uninstall security software.
- If any other non-Security Software is active: You should temporarily disable them to confirm if they could be the reason for the problem you're having. Specifically, networking software will often ignore a Clean Boot, but can modify your computer enough to prevent certain connections from happening smoothly.
If uninstalling or disabling a specific software resolves your issue, refer to the software provider's documentation or contact their support team for help configuring it so that it doesn't interfere with Vanguard.
