https://developer.nvidia.com/opengl-driver - please read about compatibility and that no 'old' functionality will be removed from the drivers.
In general you can create your application in two modes:
- Core: This is modern OpenGL, no fixed pipeline functionality. In freeGlut you can use
glutInitContextFlags (GLUT_CORE_PROFILE);
andglutInitContextVersion (4, 2);
to use core opengl 4.2 - Compatibility: all functionalities from OpenGL 1.1 up to 4.2 (in your case) are supported and all those features can be used in your code. By default apps use this profile, or you can create it via
glutInitContextFlags (GLUT_COMPATIBILITY_PROFILE );