007 First Light Anti-Cheat Error EasyAntiCheat Fix

What is the 007 First Light Anti-Cheat Error?

007 First Light ships its competitive Bond Operations multiplayer mode behind EasyAntiCheat (EAC) running in user mode — the same vendor used by Fortnite and Rust, but IO Interactive ties it to Glacier's own kernel-driver integrity check. On a clean launch, EAC starts before Glacier; if it can't, you see one of three errors: EasyAntiCheat is not installed, EAC: Untrusted system file (bcdedit.exe), or the generic Error launching the game (EAC error) modal that closes the launcher.

Unlike Valorant Vanguard or BF6's Javelin, EAC for 007 First Light does not strictly require TPM 2.0, but it does require Secure Boot enabled for Bond Operations matchmaking, blocks VirtualBox/VMware guests, and refuses to start when third-party overlay injectors (RTSS, MSI Afterburner, Discord overlay) are hooked into Glacier's render thread. The fixes below address each branch of the failure tree.

When does it occur?

• On first launch right after install — EasyAntiCheat is not installed for this game modal
• When clicking Multiplayer or Bond Operations from the main menu
• After a Windows 11 24H2 or 25H2 update that reset Secure Boot state
• Inside a VM (VirtualBox, VMware, Parallels) or a Windows Sandbox session
• With MSI Afterburner / RTSS / RivaTuner OSD running in the background
• After updating Glacier to patch 0.6.1 — the EAC bootstrapper signature changed and Defender quarantined it
• On dual-boot machines where Linux GRUB overwrote the Windows boot manager Secure Boot policy

Common causes

• The EasyAntiCheat_Setup.exe shipped with the game was not run on first launch
• Secure Boot disabled in UEFI/BIOS (required for online Bond Operations queues)
• Windows Defender / third-party AV quarantined EasyAntiCheat.exe from ...\EasyAntiCheat\
• Overlay injection (Steam, Discord, MSI Afterburner, RTSS, Nahimic, GeForce Experience) clashing with EAC's process scanner
• A virtual machine or sandbox flagged as untrusted by EAC's VM detection
• EAC service (EasyAntiCheat.exe -service) not started — Service Control Manager set to Manual instead of Automatic
• The Glacier kernel driver (ioi_glacier_kmd.sys) blocked by Memory Integrity (HVCI) in Windows Security

Step-by-step fixes

1. Manually reinstall EasyAntiCheat for 007 First Light — open ...\steamapps\common\007 First Light\EasyAntiCheat\ (or the Epic equivalent) and run EasyAntiCheat_Setup.exe as administrator. In the dropdown, pick 007 First Light → click Repair Service → wait for "Finished" → close. This rebuilds the per-title EAC registration that's missing on most failures.
2. Enable Secure Boot in UEFI — reboot into BIOS (Del / F2 / F10 depending on board) → Boot or Security tab → set Secure Boot to Enabled with Standard keys. Save and exit. Verify in Windows by typing msinfo32 → look for Secure Boot State: On. Bond Operations matchmaking won't queue without this.
3. Whitelist EAC and Glacier in Windows Security — Windows Security → Virus & threat protection → Manage settings → Exclusions → Add an exclusion → Folder → add the game install folder AND C:\Program Files (x86)\EasyAntiCheat. This is the single biggest fix when the EAC bootstrapper is silently quarantined.
4. Disable conflicting overlays one by one — turn off in this order: MSI Afterburner / RTSS (close from system tray), Discord overlay (Settings → Game Overlay → off), Steam overlay for this game (Properties → uncheck), GeForce Experience overlay (Alt+Z → Settings → off), Nahimic (Disable Service in Services.msc).
5. Set the EAC service to Automatic and start it — Win+R → services.msc → find EasyAntiCheat → right-click → Properties → Startup type: Automatic → Service status: Start → OK. If the service is missing entirely, step 1 will recreate it.
6. Turn off Memory Integrity (HVCI) temporarily — Windows Security → Device security → Core isolation details → toggle Memory integrity Off → reboot. HVCI blocks Glacier's signed kernel driver on some HP and Lenovo OEM Windows 11 builds; you can re-enable it once the game has run once and registered its driver.
7. Leave the VM if you're inside one — EAC's VM detector flags VirtualBox, VMware, Parallels, and Windows Sandbox even when Hyper-V is the host only. Boot the game on bare metal Windows. If you must use Hyper-V for work, disable Virtual Machine Platform in Windows Features before gaming, reboot, then re-enable when done.
8. Reinstall EAC entirely if the bootstrapper crashes — Control Panel → Programs → uninstall EasyAntiCheat, then delete C:\Program Files (x86)\EasyAntiCheat, reboot, and run EasyAntiCheat_Setup.exe from the game folder again. This clears the corrupt token cache that survives a normal repair.

If it still doesn't work

Open %LOCALAPPDATA%\EasyAntiCheat\Logs\ and look at the most recent EasyAntiCheat.log — search for ERR_ lines. ERR_PLATFORM_BLOCKED_SECUREBOOT confirms step 2 is the fix; ERR_VM_DETECTED confirms step 7; ERR_PROCESS_BLOCKED names the conflicting overlay process (the line before the error). Attach this log when opening a [ticket on the EasyAntiCheat support portal](https://www.easy.ac/support) or the [IOI support portal](https://007firstlight-support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us).

For other Secure Boot-gated launches with similar symptoms, see our [Battlefield 6 anti-cheat Secure Boot error fix](/en/errors/battlefield-6-anticheat-secure-boot-error), the [Hell Let Loose Vietnam EasyAntiCheat failed to start fix](/en/errors/hell-let-loose-vietnam-easyanticheat-failed-start-pc), and the [Valorant VAN-9001 TPM/Secure Boot guide](/en/errors/valorant-van-9001-tpm-secure-boot) — the underlying Windows hardening requirements overlap heavily.