After release of Windows 8.1 I found its Start button useless. Seriously, there are no issues for me if that button is not shown on the taskbar. Sure, I miss the old good Start menu. Start screen still cannot replace that menu for me, there is no doubt about that. So I decide to restore the behavior of Windows 8, without button.
StartIsGone is my latest application which allows you to remove the Start Button in Windows 8.1 and get the extra space on the taskbar. It is fully native (no .NET required) lightweight zero-privileges portable program. The user interface of this program is just an icon in the system tray and the contextual menu.
Run the app, and the Start button will gone. Tick "Run at startup" and your Start button will be removed every time your Desktop shows.
StartIsGone is available as a separate application for Windows 8.1 x86 and Windows 8.1 x64. The x86 version is not designed to work under Windows x64, it will tell you about this.