Guides

How to use AACGUARD

Practical guides for players and server owners: running a scan, understanding the result, appealing a verdict and using AACGUARD on a community server. Each guide describes how AACGUARD works today and is updated when the app changes.

Getting started

For Players · 4 min read How to Run Your First AACGUARD Scan, Step by Step Install the app, run a full scan, read the report and send the result to a server admin, in about five minutes. For Players · 1 min read A Tour of the AACGUARD App: Tray Menu, Languages and Settings Where everything is in the desktop app: the tray menu, full scan, quick and pre-match checks, scan history, languages, themes and updates. For Players · 1 min read Signing In With Steam: Verified Scans and Your Profile Why signing in matters, how the sign-in works without sharing your password, and what changes in the app and on the website. For Everyone · 1 min read How to Verify Your AACGUARD Download (SHA-256 and VirusTotal) Check that your installer is the original file in under a minute, and what to do about SmartScreen or antivirus warnings. For Players and admins · 1 min read Pre-Match Checks: A Quick Check and a Link Before Every Match What the pre-match check looks at, how to create and share the link, how long the link works and what admins see. For Players · 2 min read AACGuard Live Explained: What It Checks While You Play How Live works, how often it checks, what the public Live page shows, verified and not verified statuses, and how to turn it off.

Scan results and appeals

For Players and admins · 3 min read Reading a Scan Result: CLEAN, SUSPICIOUS and CHEAT DETECTED Explained What the three verdicts mean, how the score is calculated, why one file alone rarely decides anything, and what admins should look at. For Players · 1 min read Reporting a False Positive From the Scan Report How the one-click false-positive report works, what to write in the note, and what happens when a report is accepted. For Players · 2 min read Flagged by Mistake? How to Appeal an AACGUARD Verdict When to appeal, what to write, which screenshots help, and what happens after you send an appeal. For Players · 1 min read Exporting and Keeping Your Scan Reports Save a scan report as a PDF or web page, use your scan history on the PC, and keep proof for appeals and admins. For Players · 1 min read Fresh Start (PRO): Removing Cheat Files Safely What Fresh Start deletes, what it never touches, why it is blocked while a game is open, and why it cannot hide cheating.

How detection works

For Everyone · 3 min read Why Deleting a Cheat Doesn't Erase It: What Windows Remembers Prefetch, BAM, AmCache, ShimCache, MUICache and USB history explained: the Windows records that keep traces of programs after they are deleted. For Everyone · 1 min read External Cheats, Overlays and Injected Code: What AACGUARD Looks For The main kinds of Counter-Strike cheats and the signs each one leaves: injected modules, memory readers, overlays, proxy DLLs and OpenGL hooks. For Players and admins · 1 min read How AACGUARD Knows Which Server You Played On Automatic game and server detection: what the client looks at, why it matters for admins, and what "LAST" means on a scan. For Players and admins · 1 min read Non-Steam CS 1.6 and AACGUARD How AACGUARD handles cracked and custom CS 1.6 builds, what the "non-Steam" information on a scan means, and what it doesn't mean. For Everyone · 1 min read What a Scan Uploads, and What Never Leaves Your PC The exact list of data sent with a scan report, what stays on your computer, and how public pages hide personal details.

Server owners and admins

For Server owners and admins · 3 min read Using AACGUARD on Your CS 1.6, CS:GO or CS2 Server How server owners and admins can ask players for scans, check them quickly, list and verify their server, and handle results fairly. For Admins and players · 1 min read Player Lookup: Checking Any Player's AACGUARD History Search by name, SteamID or profile link, read a player's scan history and stats, and use the Detected, Banned and Live lists. For Server owners · 1 min read Claiming Your Server and Setting Up Its Page Verify ownership with a hostname token, then add a description, tags, country, banner, Discord, TeamSpeak and website. For Server owners and players · 1 min read How the AACGUARD Server List Ranks Servers What the ranking is based on, how often servers are checked, what the graphs mean and why some servers drop off the list. For Server owners and players · 1 min read Fake Servers: How AACGUARD Spots Them Impossible player counts, copied server names and server farms: the checks that keep fake servers out of the list.

Profile, PRO and community

For Players · 1 min read Your AACGUARD Profile: Custom Link, Country, Privacy and Sharing Claim a short profile link, choose your country, decide which stats are public and share your profile. For Players · 1 min read Profile Badges: Every Badge and How to Earn It The full list of AACGUARD profile badges: scan milestones, years of service, Forever Clean, Live Guardian, Server Owner and the staff-given ones. For Everyone · 1 min read What AACGUARD PRO Is, and What It Never Changes Everything PRO includes, how payment works, and the rule that PRO never affects verdicts or scoring. For Players · 1 min read Linking Discord and Getting the PRO Role How Discord linking works, what AACGUARD can and cannot see, how the PRO role is synced, and how to unlink.

Going deeper

How AACGUARD detects cheats, weighs evidence and avoids false positives is documented in our openly published technical report. The Features page lists every evidence source, and the Privacy Notice explains exactly what a scan uploads.