ExtendScript is only running within ExtendScript Toolkit Editor

I wrote a simple script which should sequentially execute individual scripts with different applications utilizing BridgeTalk.

The script is working fine if I load it in the ExtendScript Toolkit and press <F5> to execute the script in debug mode.

But if I directly execute the script by double-clicking the file, only the first script (IllustratorTasks) is executed and Photoshop is never started.

It seems the scripts hangs in the while loop and the script does never stop. I have to manually kill the "ExtendScript Toolkit" task with the windows task manager to stop the task.

Here is the script:

#target estoolkit
runScript("illustrator", "~/Desktop/IllustratorTasks.jsx");
runScript("photoshop", "~/Desktop/PhotoshopTasks.jsx");

// Run the script and wait until it has finished
function runScript(target, script)
{
    $.writeln("start "+script+" in "+target);
    var bt = new BridgeTalk();
    var finished = false;
    bt.target = target;
    bt.body = "$.evalFile('"+script+"');"
    bt.onResult = function(res) {
        $.writeln("\nfinished:\n"+res.body);
        finished = true;
    }
    bt.onError = function(res) {
        $.writeln("\nfinished with error:\n"+res.body);
        finished = true;
    }
    bt.send();
    while (!finished) 
    {
        $.sleep(1000);
    } 
}

Any idea what causes this strange behaviour and how to fix it?

Thanks!

Windows 7 64 Bit / Adobe Premium CS5.5