calling python code from java: askopenfilename does not work (after exporting to runnable jar)

Follow up problem from this post here: calling python code from java: askopenfilename does not work

The above error has been rectified.

I have a Java project that calls a python tkinter UI with some other python files. I wish to export this Java project into a jar/runnable jar file.

Here are the following settings I am using when exporting:
I am exporting as a runnable jar (Not sure to export as this or a jar file).

However, when I run python code and askopenfilename is executed, the whole program hangs like this: and I cannot use windows file explorer anymore...

The python code looks like this *no change from the one in linked post above:

import os
from pathlib import Path
import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import filedialog 
import startPython
from tkinter import messagebox
import threading

import sys
import datetime

import numpy
import itertools
from lxml import etree 
import lxml.html

import re
import ast

import networkx as nx
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

import pygraphviz
import base64

from networkx.drawing.nx_agraph import graphviz_layout

import plotly.graph_objects as go

root=tk.Tk()

path = Path(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
path = path.parent.absolute()
path = path.parent.absolute()
path = str(path)
path = path + '\\temp'
path = path.replace('\\','/')
print(path)

xml_old = tk.StringVar(root)
xml_new = tk.StringVar(root)
out_xml = tk.StringVar(root)

def startcompare():
    try:
        t = threading.Thread(target=startPython.build(xml_old.get(),xml_new.get(),out_xml.get()))
        t.daemon = True
        t.start()
    except:
        messagebox.showerror("Title", "Error. Please enter valid path")

def browsefunc1():
    filename = filedialog.askopenfilename(initialdir = path,filetypes=(("xml files","*.xml"),("All files","*.*")))
    ent1.delete(0, 'end')
    ent1.insert(tk.END, filename) # add this

def browsefunc2():
    filename = filedialog.askopenfilename(initialdir = path,filetypes=(("xml files","*.xml"),("All files","*.*")))
    ent2.delete(0, 'end')
    ent2.insert(tk.END, filename) # add this

def browsefunc3():
    filename = filedialog.askopenfilename(initialdir = path,filetypes=(("xml files","*.xml"),("All files","*.*")))
    ent3.delete(0, 'end')
    ent3.insert(tk.END, filename) # add this
    
l0 = tk.Label(root,text = 'Enter XML files for visualization.')

l1 = tk.Label(root,text = 'old entry:')

ent1=tk.Entry(root,textvariable=xml_old)

l2 = tk.Label(root,text = 'new entry:')

ent2=tk.Entry(root,textvariable=xml_new)

l3 = tk.Label(root,text = 'out.xml:')

ent3=tk.Entry(root,textvariable=out_xml)

b1=tk.Button(root,text="...",command=browsefunc1)

b2=tk.Button(root,text="...",command=browsefunc2)

b3=tk.Button(root,text="...",command=browsefunc3)

b4=tk.Button(root,text="OK",command=startcompare)

b5=tk.Button(root,text="Cancel",command=root.destroy)