Before I go to discuss about VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) ban, there's this "thing" I would like to discuss about CCleaner and its relations to VAC secured server.
Been reading all the threads and forums here and there, and speaking of people get VAC-banned because of CCleaner, I've found out that CCleaner doesn't cause VAC bans, but the error instead. One of the Reddit threads discussing about CCleaner said that it can delete USN journal and one other thing while it's running on the background. At least from what it said.
If you don't know, I'm a CCleaner user for a quite long time.
Steam Help is really dependable on this case. If you have a CCleaner and it's running (notably on the taskbar), I suggest to close it first before joining a VAC-secured server, especially when it comes to the competitive online in CS:GO. Otherwise if you always see it running on the background every time you start up your computer, disable CCleaner to always start when Windows starts and run it only when you need to clean up your PC from junks or other things. Don't forget to tick "Close CCleaner when done" in the Settings tab to automatically close the CCleaner after cleaning junk and temporary files.
This is one of the case video I saw from my previous Google Search.
Now let's see... I've seen a lot of people get VAC-banned already, and have their threads closed while others are handing out helps, tips, or things concerning VAC. So far I only found few active threads concerning helpful VAC discussion.
Most of the locked threads about VAC discussion is about "people arguing about it and wanted to remove it from their account". They have a VAC ban, sure, but discussing about removal? No. Most users there tend to suggest about VAC thread and then report the problematic user and lock it. No one should be informed to negotiate a removal, at least from the recognizable users, and the Steam Help about VAC ban is clear - they have zero-tolerance policy to ensure a stable and good gameplay for everyone.
I tend to see most things that they got VAC-banned: third party skin changers, third-party cheats injected to the game, modification of game files (so to say that GTA V has a separate policy during offline gameplay that offline can be used to mod), etc. - and the people misinterpret VAC ban with the "vacation", told by few people who was on the vacation and then after that, their account is VAC-banned.
Cheat Engine (though I never use it in my entire life) only cause VAC errors while it's running in the background. It only cause VAC ban if either by purpose or by accident injected to a game that is VAC-enabled, such as CS:GO.
One user in a thread was caught in a VAC-ban on post-purchase because of sharing phone numbers across accounts. Sadly, it can't be permanently removed for refund after getting a ban, but... none of the Steam Helps discuss about removing games for refund after getting a VAC ban for specific game. Is this how VAC works? There's a line that says "you can't buy that particular software in the future if you have a VAC ban on a certain game", but there's nothing to say about selling it back for refund.
So I gotta ask, I may or may not be VAC-banned in the later day (because I don't want to talk about it when I have one), but why people always argued about VAC ban and discussed about removal of it? I know no one will care about X and Y accounts get VAC-banned, but... shouldn't they just quit, inspect what's wrong, and move on? People out there are just "low-rated f***s" (pardon my English) whose their Steam accounts got a VAC ban (even more than one), and they were consider themselves not guilty and the ban was given for unjust reason.
Although there's a saying, "If a VAC ban is determined to have been issued incorrectly, it will automatically be removed.", if you are banned for unjust reason you can always raise this issue with the Steam Support (Link), but the chances that you are found not guilty for a ban is minimum, depending on what programs you installed on the PC or what is injected to the game. It is advisable that, if you have a ban and dunno what program that causes it, reinstall your OS and start all over. I wouldn't recommend if you have multiple bans on multiple accounts as this can cause HDD read sector error like the last time I have a 500 GB HDD and the PC sometimes showing failures about the HDD. You should go back on cracked/pirated games instead and play them cheats, but you'll have to wait for so long and you can't play MP (multiplayer) with it. Chances are, if you play pirated and go online, you'll have police or FBI right at your home.
General advice: if you are a Steam User like me, read thoroughly the Steam Subscriber Agreement upon account creation or using the "Help --> Steam Subscriber Agreement" in the Steam app. Number 4 of the agreement is noticeable and nuff said. If you have a VAC ban, there's no reason that you have violated agreement No. 4, so don't even think about cheating in online games, unless you are willingly to do so in a singleplayer gameplay (GTA V is an example of singleplayer cheating and modding, so to say) AND without Internet connection (there's a user who tested the cheat with bots in CS:GO using third party application such as Cheat Engine while the PC's connected to the internet and later got a VAC ban - sure, it's hooked up to the local server, but... achievements can be unlocked while playing online, and the user used it for either testing the cheat or just getting an achievement by using CE).
CS:GO has its own cheat system that can be enabled in console command while practicing with bots, so why bother with other cheat engines? Using "sv_cheats 1" while practicing with bots won't cause VAC ban, that's for sure. It'll automatically disable achievements until next training.
I'm a good user for a quite long time and I rarely, never for the past 8 or more years until today, use third party cheats. If I have a VAC ban soon, I might have to check WTF is wrong with my PC, not to notice CCleaner, BTW. I don't dare to trade or gambling in websites anyway; it's a taboo in Hindu. Other religions will say so. And I heard phishing sites all over the place that's on behalf of Steam, but Steam in anyway do not relate to them. Most people fall for it and have their account hijacked to display VAC scams based on their inventory or used in cheating to get theirs VAC-banned by purpose.
Many people will refer few steps for securing their account if one's hijacked by scanning for malware (noticeably for scanning keyloggers), changing passwords, and activating 2FA (two-factor authentication), but malware scanning with Malwarebytes isn't enough if the computer is virus-infected (and have a chance to be VAC-banned too). Avast, ESET, and AVG are the best ones I know on the internet. Try it if you are using the free version of Malwarebytes that can last for a month.
I feel pity for those who pleading to remove VAC bans from their accounts, especially those who have a game ban. But there's one last thing I'd like to ask before ending my writing here. There's a story long time ago I heard from a friend of mine that someone in CS:GO tossed a grenade into a room thinking that there were few enemies in there and by accident it exploded on three friends with extremely low health and then later game-banned by Overwatch without him knowing what's going on. If the people was too focused on one spot and there's a friend popping out of nowhere and by accident shooting on him/her (accidental friendly fire), just for once, does that will cause "griefing"? I know there's a limit of Overwatch bans in CS:GO that, "two griefs and you're out". But shooting an ally by accident (and will not result of player's death) can cause "griefing"?
Just to say, though, VAC ban and Game ban are different. The system are different, the way how it works are also different. And people misinterpret (again) game ban as VAC ban. Game ban only bans certain game that is... yeah, you found guilty in something, but VAC ban is a serious one that if you have one, access to VAC-enabled games and workshop will be limited or disabled.
I may have a lot of things to discuss about VAC, but if you have something to say, leave the comments. I'm not one of the Valve developers to be exact; I'm just a mere user who's curious about things I stumbled across, and I'd like to know more about it.
BTW, add me in Steam if you are a user. I'm usually gaming on some games I like, especially for the upcoming Ace Combat 7 that I will purchase it as my birthday gift. I'm just curious how my PC can handle it in some way.
Been reading all the threads and forums here and there, and speaking of people get VAC-banned because of CCleaner, I've found out that CCleaner doesn't cause VAC bans, but the error instead. One of the Reddit threads discussing about CCleaner said that it can delete USN journal and one other thing while it's running on the background. At least from what it said.
If you don't know, I'm a CCleaner user for a quite long time.
Steam Help is really dependable on this case. If you have a CCleaner and it's running (notably on the taskbar), I suggest to close it first before joining a VAC-secured server, especially when it comes to the competitive online in CS:GO. Otherwise if you always see it running on the background every time you start up your computer, disable CCleaner to always start when Windows starts and run it only when you need to clean up your PC from junks or other things. Don't forget to tick "Close CCleaner when done" in the Settings tab to automatically close the CCleaner after cleaning junk and temporary files.
This is one of the case video I saw from my previous Google Search.
Now let's see... I've seen a lot of people get VAC-banned already, and have their threads closed while others are handing out helps, tips, or things concerning VAC. So far I only found few active threads concerning helpful VAC discussion.
Most of the locked threads about VAC discussion is about "people arguing about it and wanted to remove it from their account". They have a VAC ban, sure, but discussing about removal? No. Most users there tend to suggest about VAC thread and then report the problematic user and lock it. No one should be informed to negotiate a removal, at least from the recognizable users, and the Steam Help about VAC ban is clear - they have zero-tolerance policy to ensure a stable and good gameplay for everyone.
I tend to see most things that they got VAC-banned: third party skin changers, third-party cheats injected to the game, modification of game files (so to say that GTA V has a separate policy during offline gameplay that offline can be used to mod), etc. - and the people misinterpret VAC ban with the "vacation", told by few people who was on the vacation and then after that, their account is VAC-banned.
Cheat Engine (though I never use it in my entire life) only cause VAC errors while it's running in the background. It only cause VAC ban if either by purpose or by accident injected to a game that is VAC-enabled, such as CS:GO.
One user in a thread was caught in a VAC-ban on post-purchase because of sharing phone numbers across accounts. Sadly, it can't be permanently removed for refund after getting a ban, but... none of the Steam Helps discuss about removing games for refund after getting a VAC ban for specific game. Is this how VAC works? There's a line that says "you can't buy that particular software in the future if you have a VAC ban on a certain game", but there's nothing to say about selling it back for refund.
So I gotta ask, I may or may not be VAC-banned in the later day (because I don't want to talk about it when I have one), but why people always argued about VAC ban and discussed about removal of it? I know no one will care about X and Y accounts get VAC-banned, but... shouldn't they just quit, inspect what's wrong, and move on? People out there are just "low-rated f***s" (pardon my English) whose their Steam accounts got a VAC ban (even more than one), and they were consider themselves not guilty and the ban was given for unjust reason.
VAC bans are permanent, non-negotiable, and cannot be removed by Steam Support. Link
Although there's a saying, "If a VAC ban is determined to have been issued incorrectly, it will automatically be removed.", if you are banned for unjust reason you can always raise this issue with the Steam Support (Link), but the chances that you are found not guilty for a ban is minimum, depending on what programs you installed on the PC or what is injected to the game. It is advisable that, if you have a ban and dunno what program that causes it, reinstall your OS and start all over. I wouldn't recommend if you have multiple bans on multiple accounts as this can cause HDD read sector error like the last time I have a 500 GB HDD and the PC sometimes showing failures about the HDD. You should go back on cracked/pirated games instead and play them cheats, but you'll have to wait for so long and you can't play MP (multiplayer) with it. Chances are, if you play pirated and go online, you'll have police or FBI right at your home.
General advice: if you are a Steam User like me, read thoroughly the Steam Subscriber Agreement upon account creation or using the "Help --> Steam Subscriber Agreement" in the Steam app. Number 4 of the agreement is noticeable and nuff said. If you have a VAC ban, there's no reason that you have violated agreement No. 4, so don't even think about cheating in online games, unless you are willingly to do so in a singleplayer gameplay (GTA V is an example of singleplayer cheating and modding, so to say) AND without Internet connection (there's a user who tested the cheat with bots in CS:GO using third party application such as Cheat Engine while the PC's connected to the internet and later got a VAC ban - sure, it's hooked up to the local server, but... achievements can be unlocked while playing online, and the user used it for either testing the cheat or just getting an achievement by using CE).
CS:GO has its own cheat system that can be enabled in console command while practicing with bots, so why bother with other cheat engines? Using "sv_cheats 1" while practicing with bots won't cause VAC ban, that's for sure. It'll automatically disable achievements until next training.
I'm a good user for a quite long time and I rarely, never for the past 8 or more years until today, use third party cheats. If I have a VAC ban soon, I might have to check WTF is wrong with my PC, not to notice CCleaner, BTW. I don't dare to trade or gambling in websites anyway; it's a taboo in Hindu. Other religions will say so. And I heard phishing sites all over the place that's on behalf of Steam, but Steam in anyway do not relate to them. Most people fall for it and have their account hijacked to display VAC scams based on their inventory or used in cheating to get theirs VAC-banned by purpose.
Many people will refer few steps for securing their account if one's hijacked by scanning for malware (noticeably for scanning keyloggers), changing passwords, and activating 2FA (two-factor authentication), but malware scanning with Malwarebytes isn't enough if the computer is virus-infected (and have a chance to be VAC-banned too). Avast, ESET, and AVG are the best ones I know on the internet. Try it if you are using the free version of Malwarebytes that can last for a month.
I feel pity for those who pleading to remove VAC bans from their accounts, especially those who have a game ban. But there's one last thing I'd like to ask before ending my writing here. There's a story long time ago I heard from a friend of mine that someone in CS:GO tossed a grenade into a room thinking that there were few enemies in there and by accident it exploded on three friends with extremely low health and then later game-banned by Overwatch without him knowing what's going on. If the people was too focused on one spot and there's a friend popping out of nowhere and by accident shooting on him/her (accidental friendly fire), just for once, does that will cause "griefing"? I know there's a limit of Overwatch bans in CS:GO that, "two griefs and you're out". But shooting an ally by accident (and will not result of player's death) can cause "griefing"?
Just to say, though, VAC ban and Game ban are different. The system are different, the way how it works are also different. And people misinterpret (again) game ban as VAC ban. Game ban only bans certain game that is... yeah, you found guilty in something, but VAC ban is a serious one that if you have one, access to VAC-enabled games and workshop will be limited or disabled.
I may have a lot of things to discuss about VAC, but if you have something to say, leave the comments. I'm not one of the Valve developers to be exact; I'm just a mere user who's curious about things I stumbled across, and I'd like to know more about it.
BTW, add me in Steam if you are a user. I'm usually gaming on some games I like, especially for the upcoming Ace Combat 7 that I will purchase it as my birthday gift. I'm just curious how my PC can handle it in some way.
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