Windows 11’s built-in Internet speed test is getting divorced from Bing, and it’s about time
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- Windows 11 Internet Speed Test Currently Redirects to a Bing Search for Easy Testing
- 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 put more thought into one of the methods it was using to push Bing on Windows 11, through an internet speed test, and we can only hope that perhaps it makes sense from a broader perspective on such promotional tricks.
Windows Central reports that in a recent preview build of Windows 11 (build 26340.9767), Microsoft applied some changes to the Quick Settings panel (accessed through 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.”
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As it is, using this feature simply opens an online speed test in your default browser, but it’s on the Bing search page (which gives Microsoft some web traffic, of course). With this change, it’s actually a native speed test that works on Windows 11, like it always should have been in the first place.
You can start the new speed test from Quick Settings or access it by right-clicking the network icon in the system tray to the right of the taskbar.
Please note that this is only in testing for now and is still in an early stage (the experimental channel), but it should eventually reach all Windows 11 users.
Analysis: Fixing Windows 11 includes getting rid of this kind of nonsense
It’s useful to have a speed test built right into the operating system for those times when you’re curious about what kind of online speeds you’re getting; Maybe you’re streaming a video and it’s buffering or crashing, and you’re wondering if that’s the service’s fault or if your Internet connection has been having problems.
However, it is not advisable to be redirected to a web browser to perform that test.
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 to Windows.”
Which makes it seem like the current implementation was always just a stopgap or temporary stepping stone, but let’s be honest about this: we all know it was another way for Microsoft to try to drive traffic to Bing.
It’s far from the only time Microsoft has tried this type of trick, and more recently we’ve witnessed the Bing Wallpaper app once again pry Bing searches for people who simply click on a blank part of their desktop (see further explanation of that incident here).
No, the Bing Wallpaper client is not part of Windows 11 by default, but it is still a piece of Microsoft software and shows that the company’s attitude still leans towards exploring annoying ways to promote its own services (this is another great example) at the user’s expense.
As one Redditor observed about Bing’s current uploaded Internet speed test on Windows 11: “This is the kind of thing that pushed me to Linux. Overall, it wasn’t that bad, but Linux (Fedora in my case) feels like a breath of fresh air.”
All these kinds of practices need to stop, and at least this new move in testing is a hopeful sign that Microsoft is finally realizing this, as it’s scrambling to fix Windows 11 and change public sentiment around its desktop operating system this year; Unnecessary promotion of Bing certainly won’t help that cause.
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