I have to second the ePO suggestion. I am guessing you are running enterprise mcafee? If you have a support contract, deploy ePO. I used Perl scripts to monitor my AV setup. However, I found that since we were paying for a licenses, why not use it since it comes with the package?

Some things to consider: 200 less WAN calls for updates to the DATs. Forced updates. Forced Scans. The biggest gift, you can keep your people from uninstalling or hamstringing the AV.

Now, if you don't have ePO access, you might consider the TieRegistry module. I found there were certain areas of the registry is where mcafee stores DAT info, etc.

Since you can access the registries remotely, I found that better then hoping shares and trying to open files.

I should try and find my old level report and see about posting it in the code libraries.