- Windows 11’s latest update has introduced an internet speed test
- This functionality is found in a sub-menu on the taskbar
- It’s not a built-in tool though, just a link to a web speed test – one that opens in Bing.com
Microsoft introduced a new internet speed test with the latest update to Windows 11, but it probably doesn’t work the way you’d expect.
Windows Latest reports that the speed test is now live with the March Update, and it sits in a submenu on the Windows 11 taskbar. However, it’s not an integral part of the operating system – it’s just a link to Bing.
This is the ‘Run speed test’ option – which you’ll see when you right-click the Wi-Fi (or Ethernet) icon in the taskbar – 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 fairness, this isn’t quite as inconvenient as it first sounds, because you have the speed test right there on the browser page ready to go when you click on it. This test is powered by Ookla (speedtest.net) and it uses the default server selection if you just 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 low latency is essential).
Analysis: Longing for the days of Windows 8?
When I first heard about this feature coming to Windows 11, I thought it was a useful addition and a smart move by Microsoft (as no doubt many of you did). But as those who jumped right on the Windows 11 March Update have found out, it’s just a link to Bing.
This is disappointing for several reasons. At first, getting your browser to launch to run a speed test is clunky. On top of that, it’s also clearly a cynical move in terms of test drive traffic to Bing.com. I guess we can be thankful that at least as Windows Latest notes, the speed test option on the taskbar respects your default browser selection (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 a 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 posting a ‘feature’ that is literally just a browser shortcut to Bing.com”.
It’s almost an effortless 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, can you?).
As Windows Latest points out, there was a built-in speed test that actually ran built into the operating system with Windows 8 – something I must admit I had completely forgotten about. This built-in implementation allowed the tool to do useful things like keep a record 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. In the end, all this really does is save you the ‘pain’ of clicking your browser bookmark to Ookla (or your internet speed test of choice). And for people who don’t want it at all, the icon is another item in the sub-menu bloat in the mix for Microsoft’s OS.
For those of you who are keen to test the speed of your internet, we have some tips on how to do this and how to ensure that you get a result that is not interfered with in any way. (For example, don’t run 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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