If anyone runs into this problem, ESET Support helped me figure out the right exclusions. You can add these under Setup (left menu) - Enter application preferences - General -> Exclusions: Setup button
Exclusions:
/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/*.* [if you have fusion]
/private/etc/*.*
/Applications/VMware Remote Console.app/*.*
[the other related post was archived, so created new one]
cheers.
Peter