Hot Take Asking for a friend of mine but what are the actual issues for running eset and MacAfee together?

[Sorrento]

Actually I have the thought of not to use any AV and to see what is going to happen

As I've not had an infection in 33 years of using a PC I'm tempted to do the same, I've not had anything blocked by an AV for years, all have been FPs (usually) or pups.

 

[Digmor Crusher]

Lesson learned: never install two antiviruses with real-time protection enabled.

I thought most of us already knew that doing this is a big no-no.

 

[Parkinsond]

As I've not had an infection in 33 years of using a PC I'm tempted to do the same, I've not had anything blocked by an AV for years, all have been FPs (usually) or pups.

 

[cartaphilus]

Why stop at two?!?! INSTALL THEM ALL!!!1

Of course and just to be safe I will run it in a VM but I can't trust a single company VM to keep me safe JUST IN CASE there is a vulnerability so for the security concious mind I will run VSphere to host a VMWare VM in which I will run Virtual Box and within that I will run all the AV solutions BUT just to be extra extra secure I will run browsers in a qubernetees. I think that should be sufficient security to watch Fox News.


On the serious side: I have removed CheckPoint Harmony and am trying McAffee with ESET Ultimate so far so good. Surprisingly ESET and McAfee together run snappier than just Checkpoint Harmony. (I have added exclusions to each perspective AV solution; ie ESET excludes McAfee folders and vice versa.)

 

[cartaphilus]

View attachment 291155

I am bored and my PC is running too smoothly and we can't have that!

 

[cartaphilus]

I remember watching a video once where they were trying to see how many it would be necessary to either crash the computer or make it so slow it would be unusable. It should be around Youtube somewhere.

an influencer after my heart! STILL MY BEATING HEART!

 

[simmerskool]

On the serious side: I have removed CheckPoint Harmony and am trying McAffee with ESET Ultimate so far so good. Surprisingly ESET and McAfee together run snappier than just Checkpoint Harmony. (I have added exclusions to each perspective AV solution; ie ESET excludes McAfee folders and vice versa.)

I recently renewed my Harmony for a year, and at times it can feel (be) slow. I am also familiar with ESET Ultimate on one VM and McAfee on another VM, I thought your original OP was more of a "what if" but now wondering if mcafee publishes anywhere that it is aok to run with another AV? Why this combo?? (Eg DeepInstinct has a webpage about running / recommending it with MS Defender).

 

[Trident]

Of course and just to be safe I will run it in a VM but I can't trust a single company VM to keep me safe JUST IN CASE there is a vulnerability so for the security concious mind I will run VSphere to host a VMWare VM in which I will run Virtual Box and within that I will run all the AV solutions BUT just to be extra extra secure I will run browsers in a qubernetees. I think that should be sufficient security to watch Fox News.


On the serious side: I have removed CheckPoint Harmony and am trying McAffee with ESET Ultimate so far so good. Surprisingly ESET and McAfee together run snappier than just Checkpoint Harmony. (I have added exclusions to each perspective AV solution; ie ESET excludes McAfee folders and vice versa.)

They refactored CP Harmony and made quite a lot of optimisations. The EFR which previously was the heaviest in the ecosystem (and way more active than any other behavioural blocker in terms of CPU usage) was optimised. It is now much lighter. You need to install the latest version.

McAfee does not recommend running their product alongside other solutions. DeepInstinct is compatible with Defender (it assumes the role of one single engine from CP Harmony, the static analysis). However McAfee is a full blown product with a multitude of engines, including static analysis.
It doesn’t really need anything, whatever is needed for you to secure your system is provided (even if not explicitly listed on the UI as Avast likes to list everything).

 

[ForgottenSeer 116559]

As I've not had an infection in 33 years of using a PC I'm tempted to do the same, I've not had anything blocked by an AV for years, all have been FPs (usually) or pups.

My experience has been similarly uneventful for a long time. The terrain has also changed dramatically since long gone days of Windows (XP and early successors), when vulnerability to exploits and malware was a much more frightful possibility in my view. It's remarkable to think back on the heyday of exploiting IE, Flash, Java, Office, Acrobat, etc.

 

[Parkinsond]

My experience has been similarly uneventful for a long time. The terrain has also changed dramatically since long gone days of Windows (XP and early successors), when vulnerability to exploits and malware was a much more frightful possibility in my view. It's remarkable to think back on the heyday of exploiting IE, Flash, Java, Office, Acrobat, etc.

MS is gradually deprecating exploitable programs.

 

[cartaphilus]

They refactored CP Harmony and made quite a lot of optimisations. The EFR which previously was the heaviest in the ecosystem (and way more active than any other behavioural blocker in terms of CPU usage) was optimised. It is now much lighter. You need to install the latest version.

McAfee does not recommend running their product alongside other solutions. DeepInstinct is compatible with Defender (it assumes the role of one single engine from CP Harmony, the static analysis). However McAfee is a full blown product with a multitude of engines, including static analysis.
It doesn’t really need anything, whatever is needed for you to secure your system is provided (even if not explicitly listed on the UI as Avast likes to list everything).

I completely understand your approach. This is essentially an exploratory proof-of-concept test to evaluate potential conflicts or performance impacts when running two antivirus solutions simultaneously.

So far, the results are interesting: PCMark10 benchmarks show the ESET/McAfee combination performing approximately 5% faster than the Checkpoint Symphony solution (version 89, which is two versions above the recommended version). This finding represents the average across five benchmark runs.

My next step will be to conduct a gaming benchmark using Dying Light 2 this evening to assess any potential impact in a more demanding, real-world scenario.

As a precaution, I've created a system image backup (part of my daily backup routine) prior to beginning this experiment. This ensures I can cleanly restore my system without dealing with any antivirus remnants once I conclude this testing.

System in Test: AMD 9900X3D coupled with MSI 870e board and 128gb of Ram.

 

[Trident]

I completely understand your approach. This is essentially an exploratory proof-of-concept test to evaluate potential conflicts or performance impacts when running two antivirus solutions simultaneously.

So far, the results are interesting: PCMark10 benchmarks show the ESET/McAfee combination performing approximately 5% faster than the Checkpoint Symphony solution (version 89, which is two versions above the recommended version). This finding represents the average across five benchmark runs.

My next step will be to conduct a gaming benchmark using Dying Light 2 this evening to assess any potential impact in a more demanding, real-world scenario.

As a precaution, I've created a system image backup (part of my daily backup routine) prior to beginning this experiment. This ensures I can cleanly restore my system without dealing with any antivirus remnants once I conclude this testing.

System in Test: AMD 9900X3D coupled with MSI 870e board and 128gb of Ram.

I could potentially configure Harmony to be a lot lighter. But it won’t match McAfee, that beast is designed with performance in mind and has undergone many optimisations it seems.

 

[cartaphilus]

I could potentially configure Harmony to be a lot lighter. But it won’t match McAfee, that beast is designed with performance in mind and has undergone many optimisations it seems.

yeap to tell you the truth; you sir were the reason why I got into the experiment. I've read your latest write up on McAfee and I said to myself: "Screw it! why not!" Damn the Torpedoes FULL SPEED AHEAD!

 

[cartaphilus]

I recently renewed my Harmony for a year, and at times it can feel (be) slow. I am also familiar with ESET Ultimate on one VM and McAfee on another VM, I thought your original OP was more of a "what if" but now wondering if mcafee publishes anywhere that it is aok to run with another AV? Why this combo?? (Eg DeepInstinct has a webpage about running / recommending it with MS Defender).

I've ran DeepInstinct along with WD on my 2016 old PC; very low impact on resources and I liked it. However, I let the subscription lapse mainly because it threw a few false positives over the year of usage and I got tired dealing with it.

 

[Trident]

yeap to tell you the truth; you sir were the reason why I got into the experiment. I've read your latest write up on McAfee and I said to myself: "Screw it! why not!" Damn the Torpedoes FULL SPEED AHEAD!

I know, a lot of people gave McAfee a chance after my tests and reviews. Even I wasn’t really a fan, I had this license that was collecting dust.

 

[mlnevese]

Of course and just to be safe I will run it in a VM but I can't trust a single company VM to keep me safe JUST IN CASE there is a vulnerability so for the security concious mind I will run VSphere to host a VMWare VM in which I will run Virtual Box and within that I will run all the AV solutions BUT just to be extra extra secure I will run browsers in a qubernetees. I think that should be sufficient security to watch Fox News.


On the serious side: I have removed CheckPoint Harmony and am trying McAffee with ESET Ultimate so far so good. Surprisingly ESET and McAfee together run snappier than just Checkpoint Harmony. (I have added exclusions to each perspective AV solution; ie ESET excludes McAfee folders and vice versa.)

What?! No sandboxes?! Risky...

 

[cartaphilus]

What?! No sandboxes?! Risky...

AW SHIAT WHAT HAVE I DONE????!!!!!

Time to Thermite my hard drives are start from scratch.

 

[simmerskool]

I've ran DeepInstinct along with WD on my 2016 old PC; very low impact on resources and I liked it. However, I let the subscription lapse mainly because it threw a few false positives over the year of usage and I got tired dealing with it.

I would occasionally see DeepInstinct block a couple of good apps due to "Reflective DLL Injection Behavior" -- fixed with exceptions, otherwise runs nicely here

 

[ForgottenSeer 114717]

I know, a lot of people gave McAfee a chance after my tests and reviews. Even I wasn’t really a fan, I had this license that was collecting dust.

A license is a terrible thing to waste.

 

[Minimalist]

On the serious side: I have removed CheckPoint Harmony and am trying McAffee with ESET Ultimate so far so good. Surprisingly ESET and McAfee together run snappier than just Checkpoint Harmony. (I have added exclusions to each perspective AV solution; ie ESET excludes McAfee folders and vice versa.)

How did you exclude ESET's folder in McAfee's settings? Did you exclude each file individually or just executable files of ESET (ekrn.exe and similar)?