Fortnite and some other online games require EasyAntiCheat. This tool monitors your PC while you’re playing, attempting to stop cheats from working in the first place. If it detects a problem, you can be banned from playing the game online.
What is EasyAntiCheat?
Easy Anti-Cheat, developed by Kamu, is an anti-cheating tool designed to stop (and catch) cheaters in online multiplayer games. Think of it like a more modern replacement for PunkBuster, the anti-cheating application that debuted in 2001. Easy Anti-Cheat runs on both Windows and macOS.
While you’re playing an online game that uses EasyAntiCheat, it runs in the background. According to its marketing materials, EasyAntiCheat is “focused on disabling the root cause of cheating on a technical level.” Rather than simply banning cheaters, this tool is designed to stop cheats from working at all.
Kamu won’t explain exactly how EasyAntiCheat works—after all, it doesn’t want cheaters to know exactly what they’re up against. The marketing materials says it uses a “hybrid approach powered by driver code and machine learning.” A support document shows it looks for corrupted memory, unknown game files, untrusted system files, and debuggers, among other things. It also won’t run if operating system security features like driver signature verification and kernel patch protection are disabled.
You normally won’t even notice EasyAntiCheat is running unless you poke around your operating system or experience a problem. You’ll see it labelled “EasyAntiCheat Service” or “EasyAntiCheat.exe” in the Task Manager.
When is EasyAntiCheat Active?
The EasyAntiCheat.exe process only runs alongside games that require it. if you’re not playing a game, EasyAntiCheat.exe isn’t running in the background.
When you launch a game that uses it—like Fortnite, for example—EasyAntiCheat.exe starts up. It remains running while you’re playing the game, and shuts down when you close the game.
If you check the Services application, you’ll also see the EasyAntiCheat service is only running while you’re in a game that uses it.
Which Games Use It?
Easy Anti-Cheat has become common among multiplayer games released in the last few years. Some games still use other solutions, like Steam’s built-in Valve Anti-Cheat System (VAC.) Other games use their own anti-cheating tools—for example, Overwatch and other Blizzard games use Blizzard’s own built-in anti-cheating feature.
The Easy Anti-Cheat website offers a list of games that use EasyAntiCheat. These include Far Cry 5, Fortnite Battle Royale, Rust, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands, and Watch Dogs 2. If you’re not sure which game installed it on your PC, check the list.
If you experience Easy Anti-Cheat errors with a game, check the official knowledge base for help.
Can I Uninstall EasyAntiCheat?
Easy Anti-Cheat is only installed on your system when you install a game that requires it. When you uninstall that game, Easy Anti-Cheat is uninstalled, too.
For example, if you install Fornite, it will automatically install Easy Anti-Cheat. If you uninstall Fortnite, Easy Anti-Cheat will be uninstalled.
You can manually uninstall Easy Anti-Cheat if you like, but you won’t be able to play online games that require it. To do so, you must reinstall it by finding the installation directory of the game that installed EasyAntiCheat and running the EasyAntiCheat_Setup.exe file.
For example, if EasyAntiCheat was installed by Fortnite and you installed Fortnite to its default folder, you’ll find this file in the following location:
Double-click the “EasyAntiCheat_Setup.exe” file to launch it.
Click the “Uninstall” link on the setup screen to remove Easy Anti-Cheat from your system.
You can also click the “Repair Service” button here to repair Easy Anti-Cheat if you’re experiencing a problem.
Easy Anti-Cheat will be uninstalled. You can reopen this setup tool and click the “Install Easy Anti-Cheat” button to reinstall it, if you like.
You won’t be able to play online games that require Easy Anti-Cheat without it. For example, if you try launching Fornite after uninstalling this tool, Fortnite will simply show you a User Account Control dialog before automatically reinstalling Easy Anti-Cheat on your system and starting the game.
