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What is VulkanRT and Should You Remove It?

What is VulkanRT

Have you found a folder on your PC called “VulkanRT” and thinking whether is it a virus or not. Or May you want to know whether should you remove it or not. Well, In this post, I am going to talking about what is VulkanRT, how it’s get installed on your PC and should you remove it or not?

What is VulkanRT (Vulcan run time libraries or Vulkan run time libraries)?

Vulkan Run Time Libraries or shortly known as VulkanRT is a low profile cross-platform 3D graphics and computing API. Vulkan API balanced performance and usage between CPU and GPU. It is developed for real-time high-end 3d applications such as video games.  The Vulkan features and the concept is almost similar to Direct3D 12.

VulkanRT was launched by Khronos Group on February 16th, 2016 and on the same day different Vulkan drivers and SDKs launched. Open Graphics Library (OpenGL) graphics API is also developed by Khronos Group. Vulkan API is a predecessor of OpenGL API.


 There are mainly two reasons why you see VulkanRT on your PC:

  • If you have installed LunarG SDK then you will see the VulkanRT folder on your system.
  • or If you have a graphics card, and you have downloaded or update the graphics card driver then you will see the VulkanRT folder.

Now if you are wondering what is LunarG, now let me explain it. LunarG is a Vulkan SDK (Software Development Kit) which gives development and runtime components to build, run and debug Vulkan applications.


 Vulkan Loader

How the Vulkan loader installed to user systems – (Diagram)

Vulkan Loader
Image Source: Khronos

FAQs (Frequently asked questions):

Q1: How Does Vulkan Run Time Libraries Installed on Your System?

Ans: As I said, Vulkan Run-Time Libraries (VulkanRT ) is get installed on your PC when you install or update your graphics driver or if you have downloaded LunarG SDK. Removing VulkanRT is optional as every game doesn’t use it. So, you can either keep or remove it.

Note: You cannot install VulkanRT manually as it gets installed with video card drivers on Windows. 

Q2: Should you Remove VulkanRT?

Ans: No. You don’t need to remove VulkanRT. It is not a virus or malware.

Q3: Is VulkanRT a virus?

Ans: No, It’s not a virus. It is a low profile graphics API.


Here more about What is Vulkan and Why You should care about if you are a gamer.

Here is the explanation of VulkanRT Graphics API

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6CklBxVWwo

VulkanRT Virus Scanning and False Positives

Sometimes antivirus program detects VulkanRT as a virus which is actually not. This is known as a false positive. You may have come across a few files which are flagged by your antivirus programme. But that is not the case always. Once the Antivirus software updated their definition the false positives will disappear.

Quick Tip: To make sure whether it is false positives or not let me share my simple tips. If you found your antivirus is flag a file, it will provide you with the malware details. You can search the name online to get the details. You can learn more about virus scanning and False positives on Khronos blog.


Conclusion

If you are a gamer and regularly tries high definition games, or if you have a high-end graphics card then you should keep VulkanRT. But if you are sure that games that you play don’t use VulkanRT API to run, then you can remove it.

But, as it is not a virus or malware, it doesn’t affect your system. So, I don’t think you should remove or concern. VulkanRT and loader files are scanned for viruses before distribution. So, I hope I am able to explain what is VulkanRT and why it’s get installed on your PC. If you still have any questions regarding VulkanRT, then you can ask me.

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Sunil D.

Hi, I am Sunil a Tech enthusiast, PC builder, and Gamer. I have been building PC since 2012. At Guildcafe, I review various products such as Motherboards, CPUs, Graphics Cards, Laptops, etc.

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