Solve 3 annoying Mac problems in minutes

1. Microsoft Silverlight for Mac isn't recognized after an update: you want to view a video and the website prompts you to install the latest Silverlight version, but afterwards nothing happens. Your browser shows only an error message asking you to install the update, which you have already done. To solve this problem, you'll have to uninstall the older version of the plugin and remove all files related to Silverlight from your Mac (look for any entry related to Silverlight with Spotlight or third-party tools like FindAnyFile and delete them); the problem occurs because your browser keeps pointing to the older version of the Silverlight preference file and so it results, wrongly, that your plugin version is outdated. After removing the old files and installing the newer version, a new preference file will be created and you'll be allowed to watch the video smoothly.

   

   Raisport (Italian national TV sports website) uses exclusively Silverlight for its video contents
   

2.  Impossible to download Java from App Store after upgrading the OS: After upgrading your MacOSX to a newer version, you'll be requested to install Java but, for some reason, if you try to download it from App Store it doesn't work. The only way to solve this problem is to download Java from the official website and install it manually. I don't know yet what's going to happen with the new MacOsX version, that's supposed to be released in the coming June, but so far I've upgraded for three times and I've always been up with this problem. I hope Apple will fix it but, should you find yourself in the same situation, now you know how to bail out. 
3. Mac shuts down very slowly if you have many open applications: If you shutdown without closing your applications first (I'm guilty, Your Honor!), it'll take longer because each one of them will have to write to disk before quitting and sometimes one or more of them can refuse to close, canceling the logout. A nifty trick to quickly close all open applications is to keep pressed CMD and TAB keys at the same time to view all open applications and switch from one to another, pressing at the same time Q key to quit them (See figures below. The former shows all the open applications, while the latter displays the open applications left after closing Actvity Monitoring). A yet quicker way to get the same result is to use the key combination CMD+SHIFT+Q, which closes all active applications and logs you out of your account, without shutting down your Mac.                                                   



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