- The latest Windows 11 update introduced an Internet speed test
- This feature resides in a submenu of the taskbar
- However, this is not a native tool, but simply a link to a web speed test, which opens on Bing.com.
Microsoft introduced a new Internet speed test with the latest update for Windows 11, but it’s probably not working as expected.
Windows Latest reports that the Speed Test is now live with the March Update and can be found in a submenu of the Windows 11 taskbar. However, it is not an integral part of the operating system: it is simply a link to Bing.
It’s the “Perform a 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 in place.
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In all honesty, it’s not as useless as it seems at first glance, because you have the speed test right on the browser page, ready to launch when you click on it. This test is powered by Ookla (speedtest.net) and uses the default server choice if you simply run it here and then 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).
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When I first heard about this feature in 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 straight to the March Update for Windows 11 discovered, it’s simply a link to Bing.
This is disappointing for several reasons. For starters, it’s difficult to launch your browser to run a speed test. On top of that, this is also clearly a cynical move in terms of trial 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 the company has done in the past).
The biggest problem, however, is that this appears to be a very sloppy design and cheap implementation of an internet speed test. Microsoft took a literal shortcut here and simply added a basic web link.
As one Reddit user put it: “The audacity to offer a ‘feature’ that is literally just a browser shortcut to Bing.com.”
This is almost an effortless feature, theoretically designed this way to avoid any potential issues or bugs that a native speed test might have caused. (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 ran natively within the operating system with Windows 8 – something I have to admit I had completely forgotten about. This native implementation allowed the utility to do useful things like keep track of past results, so you could see if your Internet connection was underperforming 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 does is save you the “pain” of clicking your browser bookmark to Ookla (or your favorite internet speed test). And for those who don’t want it at all, the icon is another submenu bloat in Microsoft’s operating system mix.
For those of you who want to test the speed of your internet connection, we have some tips on how to do this and ensure you get a result that isn’t disrupted in some 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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