You can try using Object tag in your html that includes the applet. Syntax is as follows:
<OBJECT classid="clsid:8AD9C840-044E-11D1-B3E9-00805F499D93"
width="200" height="200" align="baseline"
codebase="http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/1.4/jinstall-14-win32.cab#Version=1,4,0,mn">
<PARAM NAME="code" VALUE="XYZApp.class">
<PARAM NAME="codebase" VALUE="html/">
<PARAM NAME="type" VALUE="application/x-java-applet;jpi-version=1.4">
<PARAM NAME="model" VALUE="models/HyaluronicAcid.xyz">
<PARAM NAME="scriptable" VALUE="true">
No Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition v 1.4 support for APPLET!!
</OBJECT>
In the OBJECT tag, the codebase attribute represents the location from which to download Java Plug-in when it is not found on the local machine. This way you can specify which plugin is required for an applet to run in IE.
Hope this helps.