diff --git a/akka-modules/akka-http/src/test/java/com/baeldung/akkahttp/UserServerUnitTest.java b/akka-modules/akka-http/src/test/java/com/baeldung/akkahttp/UserServerUnitTest.java
index 0bb9dc1ef258..432d2ba265b9 100644
--- a/akka-modules/akka-http/src/test/java/com/baeldung/akkahttp/UserServerUnitTest.java
+++ b/akka-modules/akka-http/src/test/java/com/baeldung/akkahttp/UserServerUnitTest.java
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@ public class UserServerUnitTest extends JUnitRouteTest {
 
   TestRoute appRoute = testRoute(new UserServer(userActorRef).routes());
 
-  @Ignore
   @Test
   public void whenRequest_thenActorResponds() {
 
diff --git a/apache-httpclient-2/pom.xml b/apache-httpclient-2/pom.xml
index 9a9edc98795b..3312a907a560 100644
--- a/apache-httpclient-2/pom.xml
+++ b/apache-httpclient-2/pom.xml
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@
                 <configuration>
                     <source>11</source>
                     <target>11</target>
+                    <release>11</release>
                 </configuration>
             </plugin>
             <plugin>
diff --git a/apache-httpclient/pom.xml b/apache-httpclient/pom.xml
index ee0476042d23..cc8893190ec7 100644
--- a/apache-httpclient/pom.xml
+++ b/apache-httpclient/pom.xml
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@
                 <configuration>
                     <source>11</source>
                     <target>11</target>
+                    <release>11</release>
                 </configuration>
             </plugin>
             <plugin>
diff --git a/apache-libraries-2/pom.xml b/apache-libraries-2/pom.xml
index ea08ebb78ae3..f01656cd93a7 100644
--- a/apache-libraries-2/pom.xml
+++ b/apache-libraries-2/pom.xml
@@ -233,6 +233,7 @@
                 <configuration>
                     <source>${maven.compiler.source}</source>
                     <target>${maven.compiler.target}</target>
+                    <release>${maven.compiler.release}</release>
                 </configuration>
             </plugin>
             <plugin>
@@ -266,6 +267,7 @@
         <geode.core>1.15.1</geode.core>
         <maven.compiler.source>17</maven.compiler.source>
         <maven.compiler.target>17</maven.compiler.target>
+        <maven.compiler.release>17</maven.compiler.release>
     </properties>
 
 </project>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/apache-libraries/pom.xml b/apache-libraries/pom.xml
index 5dcef49dd5d1..de8d32b843e3 100644
--- a/apache-libraries/pom.xml
+++ b/apache-libraries/pom.xml
@@ -113,6 +113,7 @@
                 <configuration>
                     <source>15</source>
                     <target>15</target>
+                    <release>15</release>
                 </configuration>
             </plugin>
         </plugins>
diff --git a/aws-modules/aws-dynamodb-v2/pom.xml b/aws-modules/aws-dynamodb-v2/pom.xml
index b6fb35777174..588b89246174 100644
--- a/aws-modules/aws-dynamodb-v2/pom.xml
+++ b/aws-modules/aws-dynamodb-v2/pom.xml
@@ -91,6 +91,7 @@
                 <configuration>
                     <source>9</source>
                     <target>9</target>
+                    <release>9</release>
                 </configuration>
             </plugin>
         </plugins>
diff --git a/aws-modules/aws-lambda-modules/lambda-function/pom.xml b/aws-modules/aws-lambda-modules/lambda-function/pom.xml
index b6498efeda5d..15a488d16996 100644
--- a/aws-modules/aws-lambda-modules/lambda-function/pom.xml
+++ b/aws-modules/aws-lambda-modules/lambda-function/pom.xml
@@ -106,6 +106,7 @@
                                 <!-- Exclude module-info.class -->
                                 <exclude>**/module-info.class</exclude>
                                 <!-- Exclude overlapping META-INF files -->
+                                <exclude>META-INF/MANIFEST.MF</exclude>
                                 <exclude>META-INF/LICENSE</exclude>
                                 <exclude>META-INF/NOTICE</exclude>
                                 <exclude>META-INF/LICENSE.txt</exclude>
diff --git a/aws-modules/aws-lambda-modules/shipping-tracker-lambda/ShippingFunction/pom.xml b/aws-modules/aws-lambda-modules/shipping-tracker-lambda/ShippingFunction/pom.xml
index 0f294fabeb25..c9897e84d7e7 100644
--- a/aws-modules/aws-lambda-modules/shipping-tracker-lambda/ShippingFunction/pom.xml
+++ b/aws-modules/aws-lambda-modules/shipping-tracker-lambda/ShippingFunction/pom.xml
@@ -58,8 +58,26 @@
             <plugin>
                 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                 <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
-                <version>3.1.1</version>
+                <version>${maven-shade-plugin.version}</version>
                 <configuration>
+                    <createDependencyReducedPom>false</createDependencyReducedPom>
+                    <filters>
+                        <filter>
+                            <artifact>*:*</artifact>
+                            <excludes>
+                                <exclude>**/module-info.class</exclude>
+                                <exclude>META-INF/LICENSE</exclude>
+                                <exclude>META-INF/LICENSE.md</exclude>
+                                <exclude>META-INF/LICENSE.txt</exclude>
+                                <exclude>META-INF/NOTICE</exclude>
+                                <exclude>META-INF/NOTICE.md</exclude>
+                                <exclude>META-INF/NOTICE.txt</exclude>
+                                <exclude>META-INF/MANIFEST.MF</exclude>
+                                <exclude>META-INF/DEPENDENCIES</exclude>
+                                <exclude>META-INF/services/com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonFactory</exclude>
+                            </excludes>
+                        </filter>
+                    </filters>
                 </configuration>
                 <executions>
                     <execution>
@@ -76,6 +94,7 @@
     <properties>
         <maven.compiler.source>11</maven.compiler.source>
         <maven.compiler.target>11</maven.compiler.target>
+        <maven-shade-plugin.version>3.6.0</maven-shade-plugin.version>
         <hibernate.version>6.4.2.Final</hibernate.version>
         <aws-lambda-java-core.version>1.2.0</aws-lambda-java-core.version>
         <aws-lambda-java-events.version>3.1.0</aws-lambda-java-events.version>
diff --git a/aws-modules/aws-lambda-modules/todo-reminder-lambda/ToDoFunction/pom.xml b/aws-modules/aws-lambda-modules/todo-reminder-lambda/ToDoFunction/pom.xml
index 458a41f7562d..63843223af90 100644
--- a/aws-modules/aws-lambda-modules/todo-reminder-lambda/ToDoFunction/pom.xml
+++ b/aws-modules/aws-lambda-modules/todo-reminder-lambda/ToDoFunction/pom.xml
@@ -87,8 +87,27 @@
             <plugin>
                 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                 <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
-                <version>3.2.4</version>
+                <version>${maven-shade-plugin.version}</version>
                 <configuration>
+                    <createDependencyReducedPom>false</createDependencyReducedPom>
+                    <filters>
+                        <filter>
+                            <artifact>*:*</artifact>
+                            <excludes>
+                                <exclude>**/module-info.class</exclude>
+                                <exclude>META-INF/LICENSE</exclude>
+                                <exclude>META-INF/LICENSE.md</exclude>
+                                <exclude>META-INF/LICENSE.txt</exclude>
+                                <exclude>META-INF/NOTICE</exclude>
+                                <exclude>META-INF/NOTICE.md</exclude>
+                                <exclude>META-INF/NOTICE.txt</exclude>
+                                <exclude>META-INF/MANIFEST.MF</exclude>
+                                <exclude>META-INF/DEPENDENCIES</exclude>
+                                <exclude>META-INF/services/com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonFactory</exclude>
+                                <exclude>META-INF/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/config/plugins/Log4j2Plugins.dat</exclude>
+                            </excludes>
+                        </filter>
+                    </filters>
                 </configuration>
                 <executions>
                     <execution>
@@ -105,6 +124,7 @@
     <properties>
         <maven.compiler.source>11</maven.compiler.source>
         <maven.compiler.target>11</maven.compiler.target>
+        <maven-shade-plugin.version>3.6.0</maven-shade-plugin.version>
         <aws-lambda-java-core.version>1.2.1</aws-lambda-java-core.version>
         <aws-lambda-java-events.version>3.6.0</aws-lambda-java-events.version>
         <lightweight-config.version>1.2.1</lightweight-config.version>
diff --git a/aws-modules/pom.xml b/aws-modules/pom.xml
index 00e174774e56..f15b466944f2 100644
--- a/aws-modules/pom.xml
+++ b/aws-modules/pom.xml
@@ -53,6 +53,12 @@
             <artifactId>aws-java-sdk-dynamodb</artifactId>
             <version>${aws-java-sdk-dynamodb.version}</version>
             <scope>compile</scope>
+            <exclusions>
+                <exclusion>
+                    <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
+                    <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
+                </exclusion>
+            </exclusions>
         </dependency>
     </dependencies>
 
diff --git a/core-java-modules/core-java-11-2/pom.xml b/core-java-modules/core-java-11-2/pom.xml
index 6de1fc55869d..6e440ca9c05b 100644
--- a/core-java-modules/core-java-11-2/pom.xml
+++ b/core-java-modules/core-java-11-2/pom.xml
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@
                 <configuration>
                     <source>${maven.compiler.source.version}</source>
                     <target>${maven.compiler.target.version}</target>
+                    <release>${maven.compiler.release.version}</release>
                 </configuration>
             </plugin>
             <!-- jax-ws maven plugin -->
@@ -63,6 +64,7 @@
     <properties>
         <maven.compiler.source.version>11</maven.compiler.source.version>
         <maven.compiler.target.version>11</maven.compiler.target.version>
+        <maven.compiler.release.version>11</maven.compiler.release.version>
         <mockserver.version>5.11.1</mockserver.version>
         <jakarta.ws-api.version>3.0.1</jakarta.ws-api.version>
         <jaxws-maven-plugin.version>3.0.2</jaxws-maven-plugin.version>
diff --git a/core-java-modules/core-java-11/pom.xml b/core-java-modules/core-java-11/pom.xml
index b3b0e440ca1d..4271761b828c 100644
--- a/core-java-modules/core-java-11/pom.xml
+++ b/core-java-modules/core-java-11/pom.xml
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@
                 <configuration>
                     <source>${maven.compiler.source.version}</source>
                     <target>${maven.compiler.target.version}</target>
+                    <release>${maven.compiler.release.version}</release>
                 </configuration>
             </plugin>
             <plugin>
@@ -73,6 +74,12 @@
                                     <!-- Shading signed JARs will fail without this. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/999489/invalid-signature-file-when-attempting-to-run-a-jar -->
                                     <artifact>*:*</artifact>
                                     <excludes>
+                                        <exclude>module-info.class</exclude>
+                                        <exclude>META-INF/MANIFEST.MF</exclude>
+                                        <exclude>META-INF/LICENSE.txt</exclude>
+                                        <exclude>LICENSE-EDL-1.0.txt</exclude>
+                                        <exclude>LICENSE-EPL-1.0.txt</exclude>
+                                        <exclude>about.html</exclude>
                                         <exclude>META-INF/*.SF</exclude>
                                         <exclude>META-INF/*.DSA</exclude>
                                         <exclude>META-INF/*.RSA</exclude>
@@ -89,6 +96,7 @@
     <properties>
         <maven.compiler.source.version>11</maven.compiler.source.version>
         <maven.compiler.target.version>11</maven.compiler.target.version>
+        <maven.compiler.release.version>11</maven.compiler.release.version>
         <uberjar.name>benchmarks</uberjar.name>
         <eclipse.collections.version>10.0.0</eclipse.collections.version>
         <shade.plugin.version>3.2.4</shade.plugin.version>
diff --git a/spring-boot-modules/spring-boot-keycloak-2/pom.xml b/spring-boot-modules/spring-boot-keycloak-2/pom.xml
index 697896c7e852..277c78042019 100644
--- a/spring-boot-modules/spring-boot-keycloak-2/pom.xml
+++ b/spring-boot-modules/spring-boot-keycloak-2/pom.xml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
-         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
-         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
+    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
     <groupId>com.baeldung.keycloak</groupId>
     <artifactId>spring-boot-keycloak-2</artifactId>
@@ -54,23 +54,6 @@
             <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
             <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
         </dependency>
-        <dependency>
-            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
-            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
-            <scope>test</scope>
-        </dependency>
-        <dependency>
-            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
-            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-oauth2-client</artifactId>
-        </dependency>
-        <dependency>
-            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
-            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-security</artifactId>
-        </dependency>
-        <dependency>
-            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
-            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
-        </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.hsqldb</groupId>
             <artifactId>hsqldb</artifactId>
@@ -131,7 +114,6 @@
 
     <properties>
         <keycloak.version>21.0.1</keycloak.version>
-        <!--<start-class>com.baeldung.disablingkeycloak.App</start-class>-->
         <start-class>com.baeldung.keycloak.key.SpringBootKeycloakApp</start-class>
         <jaxb-runtime.version>4.0.0</jaxb-runtime.version>
         <wsdl4j.version>1.6.3</wsdl4j.version>