You really
never should remove any application by deleting it directly from the C drive. I'm not sure why using the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel didn't work (as I've used it quite a few times to remove/reinstall MC). MC does not "spread" files all over the system like many applications do (it only places files in %systemroot% when it really has to to work).
What you are seeing is the result of Windows file associations. The way Windows knows what program you want to use to open up a music CD (or a Word Document, or a Picture file) is through a database, which says "to open all .DOC files use Microsoft Word, to open all .JPEG files use Adobe Photoshop", and so on. The problem is that Windows still thinks it's supposed to use MC to open music CDs, even though it isn't there. If you had used the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel to remove MC, it would have correctly removed these settings. As I said, I don't know why that didn't work as it does on my system.
Either way, you should be able to restore the default CD Associations fairly easily using whatever program you would like to use to play CDs. For example, if you want to use Windows Media Player to play back music CDs, follow these steps (for Windows Media Player 10):
1. Open WiMP.
2. Point at the "Title Bar" (next to where it says Windows Media Player at the top) and
Right-Click.
3. Choose
Tools --> Options.
4. Switch to the
File Types tab and check the box that says
Music CD Playback.
5. You may want to check other boxes that correspond to the other file types you'd like WiMP to handle.
6. Click OK.
That should fix it. If you would rather use iTunes or another application, review their help file for instructions on how to restore file type associations.
If you want to be very sure that MC is removed from your system, the best option would be to
install the newest version available here and then use the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel to properly remove the application from the system. If you try this, and the Add/Remove process doesn't work (make sure to reinstall only the newest version I linked to above), please come back here and post again and someone will help you.