- Windows 11's internet speed test currently redirects to a Bing search to facilitate the test
- This is clunky to say the least — and an annoying piece of Bing promotion — but now Microsoft is changing things
- In a new preview build the speed test is fully integrated into Windows 11 — as it should have been in the first place
Microsoft has thought better of one of the methods it was using to push Bing in Windows 11 — via an internet speed test — and we can but hope that maybe it's seeing sense from a broader perspective about such promotional trickery.
Windows Central reports that, in a recent preview release for Windows 11 (build 26340.9767), Microsoft has applied some changes to the Quick Settings panel (accessed via the taskbar).
In the release notes, Microsoft says: "We're making it faster and easier to check the performance of your internet connection in Windows. Windows Insiders can now run an internet speed test and see the results directly in Quick Settings, without being redirected to a browser."
As it stands, when using this feature it simply opens an online speed test in your default browser — but it's in the Bing search page (giving Microsoft some web traffic, of course). With this change it's actually a native speed test that works in Windows 11, as it should always have been in the first place.
You can start the new speed test from Quick Settings, or access it by right-clicking on the network icon in the system tray on the right of the taskbar.
Note that this is just in testing for now, and it's still at an early stage (the Experimental channel), but it should eventually come to all Windows 11 users.
Analysis: fixing Windows 11 includes getting rid of this kind of nonsense
It's useful to have a built-in speed test right in the OS for those occasions when you're curious to learn what kind of online speeds you're getting — maybe you're streaming a video and it's buffering or glitching, and you're wondering if that's the fault of the service, or whether your internet connection has hit a rocky patch.
However, it's hardly convenient to be redirected to a web browser to have that test conducted.
Microsoft says of this change: "This updated experience builds on the internet speed test we previously introduced for Windows Insiders, bringing the test and its results directly into Windows."
Which makes it sound like the current implementation was always just a stopgap or a temporary stepping stone, but let's be honest about this: we all know it was another way that Microsoft was trying to push traffic to Bing.
It's far from the only time that Microsoft has tried this kind of trick, and most recently, we've witnessed the Bing Wallpaper app once again crowbarring in Bing searches for people who merely click on a blank part of their desktop (see the further explanation of that incident here).
No, the Bing Wallpaper client isn't part of Windows 11 by default, but it's nonetheless a piece of Microsoft software, and it demonstrates that the company's attitude is still leaning towards exploring annoying ways of promoting its own services — this is another great example — at the cost of the user.
As one Redditor observed of the current Bing-laden internet speed test in Windows 11: "This is the kind of stuff that pushed me to Linux. Overall it wasn't too bad, but Linux (Fedora in my case) feels like a breath of fresh air."
All of these kinds of practices need to end, and at least this fresh move in testing is a hopeful sign that Microsoft is finally realizing this, given that it's battling to fix Windows 11 and change public sentiment around its desktop operating system this year — needless Bing promotion certainly won't help that cause.