[Plugin: NextGEN Gallery 1.3.6] Force disabling PHP Safe Mode

I’m trying to upload images to an old WordPress website (2.8.4) that’s currently on a Plesk server. It’s using an old copy of NextGEN Gallery (1.3.6), but I’m unable to upload files or create thumbnails.

Here are the server settings:

Operating System : WINNT
    Server : Microsoft-IIS/7.5
    Memory usage : 15.7 MByte
    MYSQL Version : 5.1.61-community
    SQL Mode : Not set
    PHP Version : 5.2.17
    PHP Safe Mode : On
    PHP Allow URL fopen : On
    PHP Memory Limit : 128M
    PHP Max Upload Size : 10M
    PHP Max Post Size : 8M
    PHP Max Script Execute Time : 60s
    PHP Exif support : No
    PHP IPTC support : Yes
    PHP XML support : Yes

The weird thing is inside the Plesk Control Panel, PHP Safe Mode has been turned OFF. Here are those settings:

safe_mode - off
safe_mode_include_dir - Default
safe_mode_exec_dir Default
include_path - Default
session.save_path - Default
mail.force_extra_parameters - Default
register_globals - Default
open_basedir - {DOCROOT}\;{TMP}\
error_reporting - Default
display_errors - Default
log_errors - Default
allow_url_fopen - Default
file_uploads - Default
short_open_tag - Default
magic_quotes_gpc - Default

Is there any way to ‘trick’ NextGEN Gallery to say that Safe Mode is OFF?

Thanks