- Windows 11’s latest update has introduced an internet speed test
- This functionality lives in a submenu in the taskbar
- However, it’s not a native tool, but simply a link to a web speed test – one that opens in Bing.com
Microsoft has introduced a new internet speed test with the latest update for Windows 11, but it likely doesn’t work as you’d expect.
Windows Latest reports that the speed test is now live with the March update, and it sits in a submenu of the Windows 11 taskbar. However, it isn’t an integrated part of the operating system – it’s merely 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 query ‘internet speed test’ already in place.
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In fairness, this isn’t quite as unhelpful as it first sounds, because you’ve got the speed test right there on the browser page ready to go when you click it. This test is powered by Ookla (speedtest.net) and it uses the default server choice if you simply run it there and then in 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 a low latency is crucial).
Analysis: longing for the days of Windows 8?
When I first heard about this feature coming to Windows 11, I figured it was a useful addition and a smart move by Microsoft (as doubtless did many of you). However, as those who’ve jumped straight on the March update for Windows 11 have found out, it’s merely a link to Bing.
This is disappointing for several reasons. For starters, it’s clunky to have your browser firing up to run a speed test. On top of that, it’s also clearly a cynical move in terms of the test driving traffic to Bing.com. I guess we can be thankful that at least as Windows Latest notes, the speed test option in the taskbar respects your default browser choice (as opposed to opening Bing in Edge for a double whammy of Microsoft products, which is something the company has done in the past).
The biggest problem, though, is that this just feels like very sloppy design, and a cheap implementation of an internet speed test. Microsoft has taken a literal shortcut here and just thrown in a basic web link.
As one Redditor puts it: “The audacity of shipping a ‘feature’ that’s literally just a browser shortcut to Bing.com”.
It’s almost a no-effort piece of functionality, theoretically made this way to avoid any potential headaches or bugs that a native speed test could have led to. (You can’t break a web link with a Windows update, after all, can you?).
As Windows Latest points out, there was a built-in speed test that actually ran natively in the OS with Windows 8 – something I must admit I’d completely forgotten about. That native implementation allowed the utility to do useful things like keep a record of past results, so you could see if your internet connection was underperforming on any given test day.
This is the kind of tool I would like to see in Windows 11, not just a web link. Ultimately, all this is really doing is saving you the ‘pain’ of clicking on your browser bookmark for Ookla (or your preferred internet speed test). And for people who don’t want it at all, the icon is another element of submenu bloat in the mix for Microsoft’s OS.
For those of you who are keen to test the speed of your internet, we’ve got some tips on how to do this and how to make sure you get a result that isn’t interfered with in some way. (For example, don’t be running a VPN, and be aware of the difference of testing your Wi-Fi speed and a direct Ethernet connection to the router).
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