I managed to find a solution: basically I retarget my application to run under Framework 4.0 while the application is still compiled with Framework 1.1.
To accomplish this I followed this MSDN page. Here's an excerpt:
You can retarget the application to run under .NET Framework 4. Retargeting requires that you add a element to the application's configuration file that allows it to run under .NET Framework 4. Such a configuration file takes the following form:
<configuration>
<startup>
<supportedRuntime version="v4.0"/>
</startup>
</configuration>
So my problem is solved in 2 steps:
add this section to the web.config file of the Framework 1.1 web application:
<configuration> <startup> <supportedRuntime version="v4.0"/> </startup> </configuration>
- in IIS create a new application Pool and configure the old Framework 1.1 web application to run with Framework 4.0 in the newly created pool
Now the application runs under Framework 4.0 therefore new browsers are correctly recognized and advanced features are available.