[4] A custom version of Viewer 2.0, limited to 25 topics, was included with a $39.95 tutorial book published in 1994 by the Waite Group.

[5] In addition to titles for Windows-based PCs, Multimedia Viewer could compile titles for Tandy Video Information System and other Modular Windows systems, as well as Sony Multimedia CD-ROM Player, a portable MS-DOS-based CD-ROM XA reader released in 1992.

Viewer did not support a concurrent CD-I data format, with Rob Glaser, Microsoft's vice president of Multimedia & Consumer Systems at the time, being dismissive of it as "not based on any standard.

"[6] In a 1992 comparison of five multimedia authoring tools, including Authorware and Macromind Director, Jim Canning of InfoWorld awarded Viewer 1.0 the lowest score across the board.

[7] While Viewer 1.0 was intended to be the main tool to build the original edition of Encarta, the encyclopedia's developers deemed it inadequate for the task.