Help: AQAUserPS.exe & ACCUserPS.exe. when turn on windows defender giver pop up

When I turn on my laptop, almost everytime there is a Windows Defender Pop-Up, found 2 different apps so far (see images)

After researching deeper found out that ACC = Acer Care Centre; AQA = Acer Quick Access (I could be wrong)

But the weird thing is I don't even have those 2 apps on my laptop yet they're running in the background when I check the task manager. I went into 'Program Files' and found out that there were 2 folders 'AcerCCAgent' & 'AcerOAAgent' which contained the 2 apps mentioned in the Windows Defender Pop-Up.

What should I do to prevent this pop-up from happening? Should I delete those folders?

[Edited the thread to add issue detail]

Accepted answers

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1274907#Comment_1274907

Don't use the Blue Light feature in Acer apps but the Night Light in Windows, check it out (can be customized). 😉

All comments

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/705303/help-aqauserps-exe-accuserps-exe

You had these Acer apps at one time, but they did not uninstall completely, and remnants are still active in the Windows registry, start with opening Windows Services (type Services in Search) and look for ACCSvc, QASvc, AcerCCAgentSvc, Acer DIAgentSvc and AcerQAAgentSvc, possibly there are more Acer apps but start with these, if any are running stop the service first and then right click on the service and in Properties disable the start. Next open Task Manager-Startup apps and disable everything except Windows securityHealthsystray, RealtekAudioService and Edge apps. Reboot and see if Defender popups still occur. If still issues open Task Scheduler and disable these tasks in the library: AcerCCAgent, AcerDIAgent and AcerQAAgent, etc. Idealy you should remove these programs from the registry but that takes a bit of work with Windows Powershell and I am not sure you are up to it. Don't use CCleaner or Revo to "clean" the registry as those apps only make things worse and can cause havoc in the registry. Alls this is happening because of badly written bloatware and by 3rd-party programs that want to leave "agents" behind in the registry to reinstall programs again or monitor your activity (spying). I strongly recommend that you uninstall all bloatware, trial versions, browsers and AV programs that compete with Edge and Defender, use your resources and networking bandwidth by continuously backing up to cloud at the background and slow down your system considerably. 😉

Zhh

@Puraw Thank you, I have tried disabling them in the services but now I have found another issue. I realized that the Acer Quick Access (AQA) Service is actually related to my Predator Sense, once I disabled it, yes there won't be any more Windows Defender Pop-Up on startup, but it will mess with my Predator Sense settings.

In my case, there is an option in Predator Sense called BlueLight Shield, where you can adjust the emission level, it only works when AQA is in service, once I disabled it, the BlueLight Shield in my Predator Sense will not work, it simply just showed "MUI_Undefined".

Any ideas or workaround on this?

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1274907#Comment_1274907

Don't use the Blue Light feature in Acer apps but the Night Light in Windows, check it out (can be customized). 😉

Zhh

@Puraw Thank you for the workaround.

But there's one more issue that I realized this morning, by disabling the other Acer Care Centre (ACC) Service, I realized that the feature of Optimized Charge (limit the charge to 80%) is gone haha, I guess both ACC and AQA services are indeed related to Predator Sense huh.

What would you do in this situation?

Add: I found an option called (Automatic: Delayed Start), I was thinking of instead of disabling them, if I choose Delayed Start it might solve the pop-up issues?

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1274972#Comment_1274972

Most in this community agree with me that Acer Care Center 80% Battery charge limiter causes nothing but problems, Acer has taken the charge limiting option out of the latest ACC versions. Never limit the charging of a laptop Li-Ion battery as Windows Power Plan settings will kick-in trying to preserve battery power (throttling) and reducing system performance in the process. There is no point trying to reduce battery wear by limiting the charging, that is a myth circulating on the web, leave your adapter/charger plugged-in 24/7 and keep your battery fully charged: https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001587.htm

Zhh

@Puraw I see. Thanks for the info.

As I submitted a ticket to Acer in my region, they sent technical support to help me out yesterday, and according to him, he agreed with what you said earlier about the remnants in the registry, and he asked me to return the laptop so they could flash a new windows system in(?), he said it's different from Resetting my laptop because he suspected that there might be some error with the initial Windows, so according to him Resetting won't really work, the issue might still persist.

The thing is I don't want to do all this as this would take a lot of time and I don't have a spare laptop. I would like to ask:

In your opinion, how much of what he said makes sense? (Looking for a second opinion here because during diagnosing, instead of coming right out with a solution, he's also referring to the Acer Community…😅, doesn't seem that professional to me)
He somehow reinstalled my audio driver for no reason and I found out later that my DTS: X Ultra software was gone, I tried the solutions online and managed to get it back from an MS Store link provided online (unavailable in my local MS Store). The software is working but I was unable to pin it to the Start menu or create a desktop shortcut, the only option I got is Pin to Taskbar. Any workarounds for that?

I am really sorry to bother you with so many seemingly dumb questions and I would like you to know that I appreciate all the help that you have given so far. Thank you again!

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1274977#Comment_1274977

No problem, ask all you want. The reason Acer Support directs you to this forum is that there are a lot of experienced users here that can help. The technician was referring to BIOS and it is good to update BIOS if there is a newer version out, but you can do that yourself. To make a shortcut for a Windows Store program follow this: https://www.elevenforum.com/t/create-desktop-shortcut-of-microsoft-store-apps-in-windows-11.6408/ A Windows Store program shortcut should already be in the Start panel, click on All Apps.

Zhh

@Puraw

Interesting enough that the DTS: X Ultra cannot be found on All Apps list:

I managed to create a desktop shortcut and pin to the taskbar, but I can't seem to Pin it to the Start Menu (which is what I want to do), the Unpin/Pin from Start doesn't work for some reasons.

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