Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's new anti-cheat system was introduced in the game's latest update, but its rollout was anything but smooth.

Trusted mode blocks most external processes from interacting with the game, requiring players to exit the offending program and restart CS:GO before access is granted "-untrusted" in Steam's game launch options You can disable Trusted mode by adding it, but doing so will not only prevent access to VAC-enabled servers, but will also reduce the Trust Factor and affect matchmaking behavior.

Unofficial game modes, such as those downloaded from or running on community servers, may need to be run with Trusted Mode disabled in order to work. This is an entirely strange decision, given that community servers and custom game modes have long been at the heart of Counter-Strike.

To make matters worse, ordinary players are reporting that software such as OBS, Discord, Spotify, and Nvidia Game Filter are affected by Trusted Mode, even though the game itself is not affected in any way. Another problem is that the game does not actually tell you which process is triggering the Trusted Mode.

If players do manage to get into the game, they report that their performance is significantly degraded. The exact cause of this has not yet been determined, but some have reported that closing other programs (that were not triggered by the trusted mode) has fixed the problem.

Unfortunately, other than disabling Trusted Mode altogether and suffering the consequences, there is nothing individual players can do to get their favorite programs working again in CS:GO. It is up to the software developer to ensure that files are "digitally signed with an Authenticode signature" to comply with the new system, and even then Valve has stated that it maintains the right to block signed code that "interferes with the game in any way."

Valve has yet to issue a statement regarding the problems players have faced since the update was launched.