You can use the document compatibility
mode to do this, which is what you
were trying.. However, thing to note
is: It must appear in the Web page's
header (the HEAD section) before all
other elements, except for the title
element and other meta elements Hope
that was the issue.. Also, The
X-UA-compatible header is not case
sensitive Refer:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288325%28v=vs.85%29.aspx#SetMode
Edit: in case something happens to kill the msdn link, here is the content:
Specifying Document Compatibility Modes
You can use document modes to control the way Internet Explorer
interprets and displays your webpage. To specify a specific document
mode for your webpage, use the meta element to include an
X-UA-Compatible header in your webpage, as shown in the following
example.
<html>
<head>
<!-- Enable IE9 Standards mode -->
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=9" >
<title>My webpage</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Content goes here.</p>
</body>
</html>
If you view this webpage in Internet Explorer 9, it will be displayed
in IE9 mode.
The following example specifies EmulateIE7 mode.
<html>
<head>
<!-- Mimic Internet Explorer 7 -->
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" >
<title>My webpage</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Content goes here.</p>
</body>
</html>
In this example, the X-UA-Compatible header directs Internet Explorer
to mimic the behavior of Internet Explorer 7 when determining how to
display the webpage. This means that Internet Explorer will use the
directive (or lack thereof) to choose the appropriate
document type. Because this page does not contain a
directive, the example would be displayed in IE5 (Quirks) mode.