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Nobody wants that running on their computer though.

Maybe it's time to just give up on PC gaming and use dedicated game consoles instead, which are locked down by design? The only real alternative seems to be running a cryptographically-verified known-good OS signed by one of the big three OS companies, which is also locked down enough such that cheating becomes impossible, or installing what is essentially kernel-level malware, just to play the latest games.


Why?

Modern games all have 10GiB+ updated constantly that you're not disassembling.

What's the difference?

Kernel vs user mode. On most desktop platforms there's barely any difference, but they're all moving towards supporting sandboxing to some extent.
Does it matter when userspace software can already read all your files and access memory of processes run by your user? This kernel access boogeyman is practically meaningless.
> access memory of processes run by your user

I don't think this is possible on Windows without administrator. It certainly shouldn't be, if it is.

But anyway, the fact that any userspace software can read all your personal files without any user confirmation as soon as you double-click on it is not a good thing, and as I said, all desktop operating systems are attempting to address this problem in some way, including Windows. I imagine the normalization of rootkit-style anticheat has become a pain point for the security team at Microsoft.

How protected do you think you are from user space software you install?
Sandboxing on desktop isn't there yet, but on macOS and Linux it's possible to sandbox games such that they only have network access. If most games start requiring administrator/root access for anticheat purposes, sandboxing them at all becomes a non-starter.
The two platforms that most games don't run on? Most multiplayer games already require "root" access.
How protected you feel against cheats with a driver made by Riot Games?
I don't play that game but their anticheat is best in class. All modern anticheat that pretends to be effective has a kernel driver anyway.

But I was asking why people believe that they're safe from userspace software they install as that can read all the files and memory of processes of your user anyway.

People don't belive they are safe.

You can monitor every userspace software. You can't monitor drivers.

Most people would say there is a clear difference in security there.

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