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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Home windows 11 is testing a community pace check that you just run from the taskbar.
- The pace check icon takes you to the Bing web site.
- For now, you want a Home windows 11 Insider construct to make use of the function.
Working a network speed test is a useful approach to decide should you’re getting the pace promised by your web supplier. Usually, it’s a must to set off such a check from a third-party internet web page like Ookla’s Speedest or Testmy.net. However Microsoft is including an choice to Windows 11 in which you’ll be able to launch a pace check straight from the taskbar.
Now out there for Home windows 11 insiders within the present Canary, Dev, and Beta builds, the brand new pace check takes you to Microsoft’s Bing toolbox web site to set off it, as noticed by X account phantomofearth. After measuring your connection, the outcomes present you the obtain and add speeds in addition to the latency, which checks for any delays within the journey time of your information.
Additionally: How to upgrade your ‘incompatible’ Windows 10 PC to Windows 11 – for free
That definitely feels like a helpful, time-saving function. But it surely’s not fairly all it may very well be.
First, Bing definitely is not dangerous as a pace tester. I in contrast its outcomes with these of different on-line check websites, and so they have been usually comparable. However I sometimes depend on Ookla’s Speedtest, which is among the hottest and dependable instruments and one that gives a spread of community information.
Second, the taskbar icon merely takes you to the Bing web site, the place it’s a must to manually run the device. The Bing pace check even makes use of Ookla for the backend processing. Way more helpful would have been an inner function or app that measures your web pace after which delivers the outcomes straight inside Home windows.
Additionally: How to clear the cache on your Windows 11 PC (and why you shouldn’t wait to do it)
A number of Microsoft Retailer pace check apps will run inside Home windows, together with Speedtest by Ookla. Right here, you launch the check, and Ookla shows the outcomes not solely within the app however in a notification. If different builders can present the sort of built-in pace check, then absolutely Microsoft may have completed the identical.
Nonetheless, the choice ought to show helpful for individuals who is probably not conscious of Ookla’s Speedtest or different third-party testing websites and instruments. Because it’s now being examined with Home windows insiders, it ought to finally attain all Home windows 11 customers. I would identical to to see Microsoft flip this into an inner device quite than one which has to move individuals to Bing.
