How to do it...

1. To create a graphical Start menu application, create the following graphicmenu.py script:

#!/usr/bin/python3 
# graphicmenu.py 
import tkinter as tk 
from subprocess import call 
import threading 
 
#Define applications ["Display name","command"] 
leafpad = ["Leafpad","leafpad"] 
scratch = ["Scratch","scratch"] 
pistore = ["Pi Store","pistore"] 
app_list = [leafpad,scratch,pistore] 
APP_NAME = 0 
APP_CMD  = 1 
 
class runApplictionThread(threading.Thread): 
    def __init__(self,app_cmd): 
        threading.Thread.__init__(self) 
        self.cmd = app_cmd 
    def run(self): 
        #Run the command, if valid 
        try: 
            call(self.cmd) 
        except: 
            print ("Unable to run: %s" % self.cmd) 
 
class appButtons: 
    def __init__(self,gui,app_index): 
        #Add the buttons to window 
        btn = tk.Button(gui, text=app_list[app_index][APP_NAME], 
                        width=30, command=self.startApp) 
        btn.pack() 
        self.app_cmd=app_list[app_index][APP_CMD] 
    def startApp(self): 
        print ("APP_CMD: %s" % self.app_cmd) 
        runApplictionThread(self.app_cmd).start()        
 
root = tk.Tk() 
root.title("App Menu") 
prompt = '      Select an application      ' 
label1 = tk.Label(root, text=prompt, width=len(prompt), bg='green') 
label1.pack() 
#Create menu buttons from app_list 
for index, app in enumerate(app_list): 
    appButtons(root,index) 
#Run the tk window 
root.mainloop() 
#End

2. The previous code produces the following application: