Cheat Engine
Memory scanner and debugger used to modify single-player games
Bloat
0 · CLEAN*The program itself is clean: no ads, nothing running in the background. But its installer may add other software — see the box below before you click anything.
⚠ Before you install: the installer carries offers
The Windows installer from cheatengine.org shows third-party offers between its own screens — recently an antivirus (RAV), at other times browsers or "optimisers". Accepting one installs that program as well.
- Download only from cheatengine.org (the Downloads page). Ignore look-alike sites.
- Run the installer: accept the licence and keep the suggested folder.
- On the first screen that offers another program, click Skip All — it declines every offer at once. Users reported in 2026 that clicking Decline on one offer did not always stop it; Skip All did.
- If no Skip All button shows, click Decline on each offer screen, and untick any ticked box before Next.
- Finish the setup, then open Settings → Apps → Installed apps and uninstall anything new that is not Cheat Engine.
- Antivirus warnings about Cheat Engine itself ("HackTool", "RiskWare") are expected: it reads other programs' memory. The developer calls them false positives.
The clean route: No offers at all: the developer gives supporters an offer-free installer on Patreon, and the source code on GitHub can be built yourself.
About
Cheat Engine is a memory-scanning and debugging tool, created by Eric 'Dark Byte' Heijnen, that attaches to a running program so you can find and change values held in its memory. Its best-known use is adjusting single-player games, for example changing health, money or ammunition, or slowing down and speeding up gameplay. Beyond simple value searches it includes a debugger and disassembler, pointer scanning to track values whose addresses change between sessions, an auto-assembler for code injection and Lua scripting. Users share their findings as cheat tables, and the program can package changes into standalone trainers. Because it shows how software works internally, it is also used to learn reverse engineering. Versions are offered for Windows, macOS and Linux.
- Memory scanning for values and pointers
- Debugger, disassembler and auto-assembler
- Speed hack to slow down or speed up games
- Lua scripting and shareable cheat tables
- Standalone trainer generator
Before you download
- The Windows installer includes optional third-party software offers; read each setup screen and decline them. An installer without offers is distributed through the developer's Patreon.
- Antivirus tools frequently flag the installer or parts of the program; the developer describes such detections as false positives, and the bundled offers also trigger warnings.
- Meant for single-player games and private or educational use; using it in online games can breach their terms of service and get accounts banned.
What it looks like
No picture on file yet. We only show screenshots under a free licence.
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