Riot Client is Still Running [Fix The Uninstall]

Trying to uninstall the Riot Client and getting stopped by “Riot Client is still running. Please close the Riot Client and try again” is one of the more common uninstall errors Riot’s software produces, and it shows up even when every visible window is already closed. The cause is almost always a background process Windows still sees as active, not anything actually still open on your screen.

Why this error shows up even when nothing looks open

Closing the Riot Client’s main window doesn’t necessarily stop everything running underneath it. Background services, a system tray process, or Riot Vanguard holding a file lock can all keep Windows convinced the application is still in use, which is exactly what triggers this specific error message during uninstall. Vanguard in particular complicates things further, since it runs at the kernel level specifically to load before most other software, which means it can hold file locks that a normal task-closing approach doesn’t release.

Step 1: Close every Riot-related process manually

Task Manager shows what’s actually still running, regardless of what windows you’ve closed.

1. Open Task Manager with Ctrl, Shift, and Esc.
2. Go to the Processes tab.
3. Look for any of the following and end each one you find: Riot Client, RiotClientServices.exe, VALORANT.exe, League of Legends.exe, or anything else listed under a Riot-related name.
4. Right-click each one and select End Task. If a process refuses to close, Microsoft’s own troubleshooting guide for stuck processes covers checking the wait chain to see what it’s actually blocked on.
5. Check the Background Processes section too, not just Apps, since Riot’s services often run there without a visible window at all.

Step 2: Turn off background behavior before your next attempt

If the client tends to relaunch itself or sit in the system tray, disabling that behavior first prevents the same lock from reoccurring mid-uninstall.

1. Open Riot Client and go to Settings.
2. Turn off Start with Windows and Run in background if either is enabled.
3. Check the system tray in the bottom-right of your taskbar for the Riot Client icon.
4. Right-click it and select Exit or Quit if it’s still there.

Step 3: Remove Vanguard before touching the client itself

If Vanguard is installed, which it will be if you’ve ever played VALORANT, it needs to come out first, separately from the Riot Client. Vanguard’s kernel driver can hold onto files the uninstaller needs to touch, which is often the actual reason “close everything and try again” doesn’t work on its own.

1. Open Windows Settings, then Apps, then Apps and features.
2. Find Riot Vanguard and select Uninstall.
3. Restart your computer immediately afterward. Vanguard’s driver doesn’t fully unload from memory until a reboot happens, so skipping this step is the most common reason people end up back at the same error a few minutes later.

Step 4: Uninstall the games and the client

Once you’re back in Windows after the restart, everything Riot-related should be inactive and ready to remove normally.

1. Open Apps and features again.
2. Uninstall VALORANT or League of Legends first if either is installed.
3. Uninstall the Riot Client last, since it’s what the other two depend on.

The “still running” error typically doesn’t reappear at this point, since the processes and the Vanguard lock that caused it are both gone.

Step 5: Force removal if the error persists anyway

Occasionally Windows still reports the Riot Client as running even after all of this, usually because a leftover registry entry or folder is confusing the uninstaller rather than an actual process still being active.

1. Open File Explorer and navigate to C:\Riot Games.
2. Delete the folder manually.
3. Return to Apps and features and remove any leftover Riot Client entry still listed there, even if it no longer does anything when clicked.

Deleting the installation folder directly removes what Windows was checking against, which stops it from treating the software as installed or running at all. If none of this resolves it, Riot’s official support site covers account and client-specific cases that go beyond a standard stuck-process issue.

Conclusion

This specific error almost always comes down to one of two things: a background process Task Manager can still see even though no window is open, or Vanguard’s kernel driver holding a lock that a basic uninstall attempt can’t get past. Closing every Riot process by hand, removing Vanguard and restarting before doing anything else, and only then uninstalling the client itself resolves it in the overwhelming majority of cases. The manual folder deletion in step five exists specifically for the rarer case where a leftover file or registry entry is the actual holdout, not a running process at all.

If you’re removing Vanguard and VALORANT together rather than just the Riot Client, the full process, including the manual sc delete commands for Vanguard’s services when the standard uninstaller fails entirely, is covered in more depth in a dedicated VALORANT uninstall guide, since that scenario involves a couple of extra steps beyond what’s needed here.