The OP mentioned going back to IE6, do you not have to have IE7 before you can properly install
IE8 and if you do have IE7 is it actually possible to even revert to IE6. I was under the assumption that once you did have IE6 or later you could not totally uninstall IE because of it's integration with the OS, especially
if it's XP. In any event Windows Explorer should display it in Program files and Documents and settings /Application Data (showing hidden files) for uninstalling, shouldn't it not? Maybe give Revo
Uninstaller a try to see if it shows up there.