windows 7 - How to re-enable Internet Explorer after disabling it and downgrading (11->9)

I need to test a site on IE9 for a client. For technical reasons, I'm forced to work on a Windows 7 virtual machine, which runs IE11. So I found this tutorial which basically says you can do that by first disabling IE as part of the Windows features, and then find IE11 in the "installed updates" listing (in Windows Update) and uninstall it from here. So to get to IE9, I have to do that twice.

Actually I didn't follow exactly the procedure. Here's what I did:

1. I went first to the installed updates part, found IE11, uninstalled it and restarted Windows. When I launched IE again, I confirmed (via the "About" dialog box) that it had been downgraded to IE10. So at that point I had not disabled IE in the "Turn Windows features on or off" window.


2. Then I thought that maybe I was missing something important by not disabling IE before uninstalling the relevant update, so I went to the "Turn Windows features on or off" window and disabled Internet Explorer here.


3. Then I went back to the installed updates and uninstalled the update "Internet Explorer 10". Then rebooted the machine.

And that's where I am now: the problem is that IE seems to have been completely uninstalled, not just downgraded, and is not even listed anymore in the "Turn Windows features on or off" window. So I have no way (that I know of) to re-enable it.

I tried to download IE9 through various sites (using Firefox to download Internet Explorer, that's not something you do everyday!), but the installation fails, saying there is already a more recent version installed.

If I go to the "installed updates" page, I can see "Internet Explorer 9" listed here. So I could uninstall it, but at this point I'm not sure it's very wise...

So it seems IE is still here, but non-functional and non-"enablable"...

Any idea how to fix this mess?