WARDOGS Secure Boot Anti-Cheat Requirement
Secure Boot is not required for everyone right now, but devs may force it later. How to check your status, decide whether to enable it, turn it on safely without locking yourself out, and what to do when the game still will not launch.
Core problem: Players are confused about whether WARDOGS requires Secure Boot to play online. The answer is: not yet for everyone, but the developers have said they may force it for the whole player base or for accounts linked to detected cheaters. The real risk players face is not the game kicking them out, it is enabling Secure Boot wrong and locking themselves out of their own drive.
1Check Your Current Status First
- 1Press Windows + R, type
msinfo32, hit Enter.Opens the System Information window.
- 2Look at the BIOS Mode line.
Must say UEFI. Secure Boot only works in UEFI mode, not Legacy or CSM. If it says Legacy, you cannot just flip a switch.
- 3Look at the Secure Boot State line.
Values: On, Off, or Unsupported. If it already says On and BIOS Mode is UEFI, you are done.
- 4Check TPM while you are there.
Run
tpm.mscor check in the same window. TPM 2.0 is usually present on Windows 11 machines. Devs cited ~88% Secure Boot and ~96% TPM adoption among current players.
Should You Enable It Now?
| Your Situation | What to Do |
|---|---|
| Already On + UEFI | Nothing to do. You are covered if the devs flip the switch. |
| Play with randoms a lot, want extra cheat protection | Enable it now. Blocks many unsigned cheat drivers at boot. |
| Worried about the "associated account" rule | Enable it now. Devs may require Secure Boot on accounts linked to detected cheaters. |
| Dual-boot Linux or use unsigned boot tools | Leave it off for now. The game still launches. Enabling can break your dual-boot setup. |
| Older motherboard without clean Secure Boot support | Leave it off. Forcing it on flaky hardware causes more boot problems than it solves. |
2Enable Secure Boot Safely
- 1Back up your BitLocker recovery key.
Search "BitLocker" in Windows Settings, click "Back up recovery key." Save it somewhere outside your PC (email, USB, cloud). Skip this step only if BitLocker is not active.
- 2Restart into BIOS/UEFI.
Usually Del, F2, or F10 during POST. Some boards use F12 for a boot menu, then select BIOS from there.
- 3Confirm the disk is GPT and the mode is UEFI.
If you are still on MBR or Legacy/CSM, you must convert the disk first. That is not a simple toggle and can lose data if done wrong. Stop here and convert before proceeding.
- 4Find Secure Boot and set it to Enabled.
Look under "Secure Boot," "Boot," or "Security" depending on your board (ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, etc.). Some boards offer "Standard" vs "Custom" mode. Standard is usually enough.
- 5Save and exit (usually F10).
The system reboots.
- 6Boot into Windows and re-check
msinfo32.Secure Boot State should now say On. If Windows asks for a BitLocker key, use the one you saved in step 1.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Flipping the switch without checking BIOS Mode first. Legacy systems will not boot after enabling Secure Boot. Check msinfo32 before touching BIOS.
- Skipping the BitLocker key backup. The single most common way players lock themselves out of their own drive.
- Assuming it is already mandatory because CoD or Battlefield require it. WARDOGS has not flipped that switch yet. The game launches without it right now.
- Running the game from a desktop shortcut instead of Steam after anti-cheat changes. Frequently mixed up in the same threads but unrelated to Secure Boot.
- Expecting Secure Boot to stop all cheats. Devs and players both note it is an extra layer, not a complete solution. Kernel-level cheats that sign their drivers can still get through.
3If the Game Still Will Not Launch After Enabling
- 1Repair or reinstall the anti-cheat from the game folder.
Look for the anti-cheat installer in the WARDOGS install directory and run it directly.
- 2Add the game and anti-cheat folder to your antivirus exclusions.
Antivirus blocking the kernel driver is a common cause of launch failure that gets blamed on Secure Boot.
- 3Reboot after making changes.
Anti-cheat services often need a full restart to register changes.