mprexe illegal operation

I have a win98OS.  I get the error message "mprexe: this program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down" and the system hangs before I get my desktop open.  I even tried opening in safe mode and get the same message.  I tried system restore and get the message again at startup.  I tried a step by step comfirmation but can't find anything that resembles mprexe.  Since I can't get to the start menu I'm not sure what else to try.