Eddowii,
If what Aaron posted above doesn't help, then type
iexplore.exe in the Start Menu search box and press enter. Does it open IE for you? If so, click on
Help and
About Internet Explorer to see what the version number is.

If it's not IE8 or nothing opens, then I suppose that you could try a
system restore using a restore point dated before you installed IE9 to undo it.