Wintask error msg on start-up

Hey guys,
I could really use some input in laymans terms if anyone can help. I'm running a Dell I-4000 laptop with Win Me and upon reaching my desktop after booting the system, I consistently receive the message:

" ! Wintask has caused an error in <unknown> wintask will now close. If you continue experiencing problems, try restarting your computer."

I'm able to locate a couple wintask-related documents such as DAT, TLB, a Faultlog, and a few drivers when I search for file/folders with the text "wintask".

I'm running McAffee Antispyware and AntiVirus with a Personal Firewall program as well. The typical set-up. However, I've been unable to get rid of this message since doing a dirty reinstall of the OS several months ago when some virus kept destroying stuff and I accidentally deleted multiple components. The system periodically reboots itself involuntarily as well, but not for quite some time, I think I caught the culprit that was casuing that, or McAffee did rather. Please help me out if you can. Thanks so much!

Additionally, whenever I attempt to open any Word document, the system freezes. I CTL+ALT+DEL to attempt a restart and I get the BLUE SCREEN, followed by the message that the "system is dangerously low in resources" and Word closes... then it continues to close other applications thereafter, accompanied by the same message. Hopefully, this problem is unrelated since I was able to open any word document, even when receiving the wintask message at start-up. Thanks.