How to remove dead items from the Startup tab in Task Manager?

Based on an answer that got deleted, I wound up installing Autoruns and removed the items from within the program.

Alternatively, I could have deleted them from the HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run branch using RegEdit.

• Startup programs for current user:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

• Startup programs for currently logged on users (also applicable to current user):

HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-XXXXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXXXX-XXXX\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Where S-1-5-21-XXXXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXXXX-XXXX is the SID of the logged on user.

• Startup programs ran by System account (for all users):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

• 32-bit Startup programs on 64-bit system ran by System account (for all users):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

You can remove the entries using Ccleaner by going to Tools->StartUp-> then you can ENABLE/DISABLE/DELETE any entry