Broken IE9 installation via windows update W2K8R2

Today windows update broke after an appratenly incomplete Internet Explorer 9 installation.

I just installed the updates and rebooted normally, did not get any errors, IE was indeed upgraded to 9 and working fine, however windows update still thinks that it is not installed and keeps offering it again but when I try to install, it fails.

I tried downloading IE9 and installing myself but the setup also fails and says that a more recent version is already installed

IE9 was not listed in the "Installed Updates" in the control panel's "Programs and Features" so there was no way to uninstall it properly

The setup log IE9_main.txt contained the following:

00:00.094: Time Format in this log: MM:ss.mmm (minutes:seconds.milliseconds)
00:00.125: Command line: "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\Install\WU-IE9-Windows7-x64.exe" /WU
00:00.141: INFO:    Setup installer for Internet Explorer: 9.0.8112.16421
00:00.172: INFO:    Previous version of Internet Explorer: 9.0.8112.16434
00:00.203: INFO:    Checking if iexplore.exe's current version is between 9.0.6001.0...
00:00.235: INFO:    ...and 9.1.0.0...
00:00.266: INFO:    Maximum version on which to run IEAK branding is: 9.1.0.0...
00:00.313: ERROR:   A newer version of Internet Explorer is already installed on the system.
00:00.344: ERROR:   Internet Explorer version check failed.
00:00.407: INFO:    Setup exit code: 0x00009C48 (40008) - A more recent version of Internet Explorer is installed.
00:00.438: INFO:    Cleaning up temporary files in: C:\Windows\TEMP\IE95208.tmp
00:00.469: INFO:    Unable to remove directory C:\Windows\TEMP\IE95208.tmp, marking for deletion on reboot.
00:00.485: INFO:    Released Internet Explorer Installer Mutex

Some websites suggested running the installer with /x option to extract the package then run it with /uninstall, others said to restore to an earlier restore point or just reinstall, these solutions were for windows 7 and IE9 beta.

I do not have system restore on Windows 2008 and the extract package then /uninstall did not work too .

Luckily after some more searching I found this command that forces IE9 uninstallation, it seemed risky but it was worth a try before rushing into reinstalling the web server, redeploying applications and configuring back all customizations.

FORFILES /P %WINDIR%\servicing\Packages /M Microsoft-Windows-InternetExplorer-*9.*.mum /c "cmd /c echo Uninstalling package @fname && start /w pkgmgr /up:@fname /norestart"

I ran the command, rebooted once then IE9 setup and windows update worked again :)

I can finally see "Windows Internet Explorer 9" listed in the "Installed Updates".