Has there been a change to versioning IE 11 on Windows 7

Hello, I work in QA and have a very odd question for the community. Hopefully someone has a response as to why this is currently happening.

History:
I need to test IE 8 on Windows 7 and had an authentic version of IE 8 on Windows 7 for a while. Sometimes IE 8 will upgrade to IE 11 but in the past that has been ok, because by simply going to Programs & Features < Turn Windows Features on or off; I select IE 11, restart my machine and then IE reverts back down to IE 9. With a few more steps inside programs and features I'm able to get back down to IE 8.

I just had a request to do a test on IE 8, so I booted up my Windows 7 machine dedicated to this and noticed IE updated to version 11. So I did my usual de-versioning....however after a restart IE 11 didn't revert. It was completely removed from the machine. Yes I can go back in and turn IE 11 on, but after removing IE 11 I expect it should go back to a previous version of IE like it has done so before, not completely remove the browser.

So my question is, has there been a change to versioning IE 11 on Windows 7? Because this looks like it has been changed, but I have not encountered any documentation about this after quite a bit of google searches.

This is extremely important because this makes me believe all Windows 7 machines are forcing all versions of IE that are not 11 to be upgraded to 11. I know of alternatives to testing IE 8, I am prepared for that so please understand that's not what I'm asking. I'm more interested in the fact that others will not have access to IE 8 anymore. This isn't just with IE 8, 9 and 10 are also absent from this process. Is this a intentional change? Or is this a bug with the OS that I happen to be experiencing?

ANY details would be great, thanks for reading and thanks for your responses!

Thanks for the info Thrash.

What does this mean for users who are currently using IE 8 on their Windows 7? (For example, clients who have strict security that prevent their browsers from updating)

Is there another alternative to getting IE 8 on Windows 7 that would be authentic (not a emulator or virtual machine)?

Any info is better than no info, thanks again Thrash! I just can't believe in a few months this has changed so drastically.

If anyone could have an answer for this question, then I can mark this as solved.
What does this mean for users who are currently using IE 8 on their Windows 7? (For example, clients who have strict security that prevent their browsers from updating)