running bat files on xp home

AFIK this is by design. XP Home was deliberately stripped of the automatic link with MS server operating systems, it is only positioned for peer-to-peer use.
However a workaround is not THAT difficult, because upon logon the workstation will still get the homedirectory mapped. (By the way, persistent mappings in Explorer will do most of what a script can do - but maybe you want to do more than mappings.)

So what I'd propose is a trick like a Kixtart script in the workstation's startup profile (formerly autoexec) running like
:Start
IF NOT EXIST Z:\Myhomedircheck GOTO Notyet
Call Z:\Mylogon.bat
Goto TheEnd
:NotYet
Sleep 60
Goto Start
:The End
Echo Did it!

User won't notify it, and still within 60 seconds of succesful logon the script will have been launched. Shorten the checking time if you need it...

Hope this helps,

- The Netherlands