How to Run Your First AACGUARD Scan, Step by Step

A server admin asked you to "do an AACGUARD scan" before a match, or you want to prove you are clean before joining a community. This guide walks through the whole process, from download to the link you send to the admin. It takes about five minutes the first time and less than a minute after that.

What you need

• A Windows PC: the same one you play on. A scan only says something about the PC it ran on.
• Administrator rights. AACGUARD reads Windows activity records (such as Prefetch and AmCache) that only administrators can read. It does not install a driver and does not touch your game files.
• Your Steam account. Signing in is optional, but it marks your results as verified, so nobody can pretend a scan is yours.

Step 1: Download from the official site

Download AACGUARD only from aacguard.com. Copies passed around on Discord or file-sharing sites can be modified. If you want to be sure your file is the original, the Trust Center lists the SHA-256 hash of every release and its VirusTotal report. In PowerShell, Get-FileHash .\AACGUARD-setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256 prints your file's hash so you can compare.

Step 2: Install and open the app

Setup takes a few seconds. AACGUARD then starts with Windows and waits in the system tray (next to the clock), so it is ready before you join a server. Closing the window keeps it in the tray; choose Exit in the tray menu to close it fully. Both "Start with Windows" and AACGuard Live can be turned off from the same menu.

Step 3: Sign in with Steam (recommended)

Press Sign in in the app. Your browser opens aacguard.com, where you log in through Steam's own page; AACGUARD never sees your Steam password. After signing in, your scans and your AACGuard Live status are marked as verified, and the app shows your profile, scan totals and Steam stats.

Step 4: Start the scan

Open the game you will play first, or keep it closed: either works. Press Start scan. A full scan checks 22 evidence sources (running programs, loaded modules, Windows execution history, cheat files in common folders, autostart entries, USB history, game configs and browser traces of cheat sites) and runs roughly 190,000 individual checks. On most PCs it finishes in under 20 seconds.

The full scan never starts by itself. It only runs when you press Start or Restart.

Step 5: Read your report

When the scan ends you see one of three verdicts, CLEAN, SUSPICIOUS or CHEAT DETECTED, with a numeric score. Every finding explains in plain words where it was found, why it can point to a cheat, how many points it counted and what you can do about it. Our guide Reading a scan result explains the verdicts in detail.

If you think one finding is wrong, press Report false positive next to it. That sends only that one finding (with an optional note) for review, and confirmed false positives are fixed for everyone.

Step 6: Upload and share the link

The report is uploaded to aacguard.com and gets its own page, for example aacguard.com/scan_view.php?id=…. Send that link to the server admin who asked for the scan. Admins see the verdict, the game the scan was for, the server you were on and every finding with its evidence. Public scan pages hide your Windows account name and mask device serial numbers.

You can choose not to upload a report: the scan still runs on your PC, but then there is nothing for the admin to check. Uploads are limited to 5 per day (10 with PRO) to keep the service fast for everyone.

Quick checks and pre-match links

Some admins only want to know what is running right before a match. The Pre-match check button runs a 10–30 second check of running programs and creates a share link the admin can open. The Quick check in the tray menu is a few-second look for yourself and is never uploaded.

After the scan: AACGuard Live

While AACGUARD runs, AACGuard Live checks every minute what is running on the PC, and every 30 seconds what is running with the game while CS2, CS:GO, CS 1.6 or another Valve game is open. It never reads history, so it stays light. Your Live status is shown on the public Live page. You can turn Live off in the tray menu at any time.

Common problems

• "Daily limit reached": you uploaded your daily number of scans (5, or 10 with PRO). The limit resets at midnight, server time, and the app shows how long is left.
• Windows SmartScreen warning: new versions can show "Windows protected your PC" until enough people have downloaded them. Check the hash on the Trust Center, then choose More info → Run anyway.
• Your antivirus quarantined it: the official builds have 0 detections on VirusTotal. Restore the file and add an exception, or download it again from aacguard.com.