- The latest Windows 11 update has introduced an Internet speed test
- This functionality is located in a submenu on the taskbar.
- However, it is not a native tool, but simply a link to a web speed test, which opens on Bing.com.
Microsoft has introduced a new internet speed test with the latest update for Windows 11, but it probably won’t work as you might expect.
Windows Latest reports that the speed test is now available with the March Update and is located in a submenu of the Windows 11 taskbar. However, it is not an integrated part of the operating system: it is simply a link to Bing.
This is the ‘Perform speed test’ option, which you’ll see when you right-click the Wi-Fi (or Ethernet) icon in the system tray, and what happens when you select it is that Windows 11 opens Bing.com in your default browser with the ‘internet speed test’ query already implemented.
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To be fair, this isn’t as useless as it sounds, because you have the speed test right there on the browser page, ready to go when you click on it. This test works with Ookla (speedtest.net) and uses the default server option if you just run it right there on Bing.com.
The test reports your download and upload speeds, as well as your ping in milliseconds (which is important for scenarios like online gaming, where low latency is crucial).
Analysis: Do I long for the days of Windows 8?
When I first heard that this feature was coming to Windows 11, I thought it was a useful addition and a smart move by Microsoft (as many of you no doubt did). However, as those who jumped right into the March update for Windows 11 discovered, it’s simply a link to Bing.
This is disappointing for several reasons. For starters, it’s tricky to get the browser to launch to run a speed test. On top of that, it’s also clearly a cynical move in terms of driving test traffic to Bing.com. I guess we can be thankful that, at least as Windows Latest points out, the speed test option in the taskbar respects your default browser choice (as opposed to opening Bing in Edge to get a double whammy of Microsoft products, which is something the company has done in the past).
However, the biggest problem is that this seems like a very sloppy design and a cheap implementation of an Internet speed test. Microsoft has taken a literal shortcut here and simply included a basic web link.
As one Redditor puts it: “The audacity of including a ‘feature’ that is literally just a browser shortcut to Bing.com.”
It’s almost effortless functionality, theoretically done this way to avoid potential headaches or errors that a native speed test might have caused. (After all, you can’t break a web link with a Windows update, right?)
As Windows Latest points out, there was a built-in speed test that actually ran natively on the Windows 8 operating system, something I must admit I had completely forgotten about. That native implementation allowed the utility to do useful things like keep a log of previous results, so you could see if your Internet connection was performing poorly on a given test day.
This is the kind of tool I’d like to see in Windows 11, not just a web link. Ultimately, all this really does is save you the “pain” of clicking your browser’s bookmark for Ookla (or your preferred internet speed test). And for people who don’t want it at all, the icon is another submenu item in the Microsoft operating system mix.
For those of you who are interested in testing your internet speed, we have some tips on how to do it and how to make sure you get a result that won’t be interfered with in any way. (For example, don’t use a VPN and be aware of the difference between testing your Wi-Fi speed and a direct Ethernet connection to the router.)
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