Speed Test for Windows

Speed Test helps you determine your Internet connection speed and network bandwidth, while at the same time giving you more insight into your system performance such as CPU and RAM usage and system uptime. Apart from monitoring your computer's resources in real time, this program displays the data in line graphs, and alerts you if any problems occur.

Speed Test comes with a free trial version, which is very limited in options. You can add only one graph/node and choose to monitor Web site real bandwidth and response time, system uptime, upload transfer speed, CPU usage, or RAM avail/usage. If you wish to add more nodes to monitor the performance of your hard drives, download transfer speed and errors, virtual memory usage, battery charge status, and other processes, as well as view logs, you will have to upgrade to one of the Pro packages. Once installed, Speed Test runs in the background and can be accessed via the icon in your System Tray. The interface appears slightly cluttered and the default choice of colors for both background and fonts give it a rather dated appearance, making it not too easy on the eyes. However, hovering over each option gives you helpful tips on how to use the program. By default, you get one line graph with one node. Clicking on the node allows you to change its type and data it displays by choosing one of the options from the three available categories -- Internet, Hardware, or System. The line graph appears in a separate window and shows the data in real time. We liked that the graph featured cross-hairs; we were able to place our cursor over a specific line and observe detailed information of that point on the graph. We were also able to change the graph's default colors and opacity, which allowed us to customize its appearance to our liking. However, we couldn't use the bar graph or view data in the System Tray, because for these options we needed to upgrade to Speed Test Pro.

Overall, Speed Test performs the few available functions well, but to make actual use of this program, you will need to upgrade to one of the Pro packages.