Remove Dead Entries from the Startup Tab in Task Manager

Windows 8 and Windows 10 have a new Task Manager app. It looks completely different compared to Windows 7's Task Manager and has different features. A new feature of the Task Manager app is the ability to manage Startup apps. In this article, we will see how to remove dead entries from the Startup tab of the Task Manager in Windows 10 and Windows 8.

Windows 10's Task Manager has some nice features, like a performance graph and startup impact calculation. It is able to control which apps launch during startup. There is a special tab "Startup" which is designed to manage startup apps.

Tip: You can save your time by creating a special shortcut to open the Startup tab directly of the Task Manager.

Using the Startup tab of Task Manager, you can easily prevent an app from starting with your OS. It is very easy - just right click the desired app and pick "Disable" from the context menu.

Remove Dead Entries from the Startup Tab in Task Manager

You can save your time and quickly remove dead entries using the Autoruns app. It is not part of Windows, but is included in Microsoft's SysInternals suite of tools.

Here is what you have to do.

1. Download Autoruns
2. Unzip the app and run the autoruns.exe file. If you are running 64-bit Windows 10 or Windows 8, then run the file autoruns64.exe. It looks as follows:
3. 
   
   Missing entries are highlighted with the yellow color
   
4. .Carefully inspect them and delete the ones that you do not need. Just right the entry and select "Delete" from the context menu.If it is not possible to use Autoruns for you or you are curious where the startup items are stored, you can inspect the following folders and Registry locations.