it does not matter where you call the finisher... as long as you do

I would have done this differently...
i would have added one runonce entry that called your script.

and then run all the apps from the script directly... that would be much easier to trouble shoot too.

i'm sorry if i am repeating a common question, i looked around but couldn't find this
so here's the order of how i do it right now and then i'll get to the question:
*Extract windows xp to folder (already has sp3 slipstreamed)
*Use Ryan Integrator to add a few addon apps (apps, updates since sp3, etc.)
*integrate wmp11 using the wmp11 slipstreamer
*use nlite to add tweaks, serial, etc...
*driverpack integration, method 2, runonceex method
*create $ and $$ folders and add apps in under the $OEM$ folder
*nlite to create ISO

so now that i have that summarized, here's the problem:
so driverpack creates the cmdlines.txt and the ROE.exe files under the $OEM$ folders, which everyone here knows.
now my applications are also installed using runonceex method.  i'm just having a difficult time figuring out how to setup this up with these files.
what i tried is this (and obviously didn't work or i wouldn't be here ): 
cmdlines calls a file called start.cmd.  start.cmd has this in it

@ECHO OFF

SET KEY=HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx

REG ADD %KEY%\001 /V 1 /D "%SystemDrive%\ROE.exe 937" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\002 /V 1 /D "%SystemDrive%\RunOnceEx.cmd" /f

EXIT

under the $1 folder is ROE.exe and runonceex.cmd.  so i would expect from the start.cmd file that it would run the ROE file first and do the driverpack portion.  then it would wait to finish and start the runonceex.cmd

cmdow @ /HID
@Echo Off

SET PP=%SystemDrive%\Install\

SET KEY=HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx

REG ADD %KEY% /V TITLE /D "Installing Applications" /f

REG ADD %KEY%\001 /VE /D "7-Zip" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\001 /V 1 /D "%PP%System\7Zip.exe /S" /f

REG ADD %KEY%\005 /VE /D "McAfee VirusScan Enterprise" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\005 /V 1 /D "%PP%System\McAfee\Setupvse.exe" /f

EXIT

(i shortened the runonceex.cmd to save space since this post is already so long, it's just more apps......)

so now, when i try installing a clean install, it does everything it should as far as installing xp, copies all of the apps to the c drive as expected, but it just doesn't start the app installation or the driverpack portion.  as if it's just skipping the start.cmd

any help please, or just let me know if you need more info.

thanks a lot