Cover your cooktop with paper towels while you're cooking on it.

If it is just a no scrape simple shine up, try a light rub down and a paper towel polish with Vim or one of your other choices. The light smear left behind is usually a cleaner ingredient and will evaporate in a few hours at the most.

The smearing and residue did not go away even after many hours. I always had to re-clean with soap and water when I used kitchen appliance/countertop sprays to get rid of streaks and cludy residue.
Other people also use the cooktop and I want to make it as easy as possible for them because they are a bit lazy, always in a rush and apparently don't have good eyesight when they half-clean the cooktop after use.
I'm looking for an effective cleaning method that can be done with a minute or less of of work so there are no excuses about not having time.

That residue is either oil (spatters from cooking, now smeared by the cleaning rag) or residue from the dish soap. Since moving into our new home 3 years ago, I have tried various methods to clean our induction cooktop. The fastest way I've found is:

1. scrub the surface with a soapy sponge (dilute the soap first)

2. Wipe and dry the surface with a dry-ish clean rag

3. Spray the surface with a little windex, and polish with a microfiber rag.

It takes less than a minute, and leaves a streak-free shine.

Yes, what Jeff said. The key is microfiber rags, or very clean rags. I have microfibers specifically for the ind. cooktop. Bright as new in no time at all.

I can't trust anyone else to use paper towels under pans, so I won't suggest it. They will end up wandering off to anther room while cooking on high heat and the paper towels will scorch and catch fire.

Good point jaxo, One should NEVER!!!!! use the paper towels and leave the cooktop unattended, even for a short time!
If one had it on boost, or even a "high setting" and the
pot/pan ran dry or cooking oil or grease was being used the paper towels would indeed scorch or possibly catch fire.

Occasionally, some oil or grease might seep thru a paper towel as it did in the video (I put up on UTube).
I just use any dish soap that is handy to remove the grease, and then just wipe the
cook top down with a dish towel or even a paper towel and it looks good as new.

The cooktop did come with a cleaner, which I rarely use unless I want a "Spit Shine" on it (You Military folks) will know what that means--IE, in everyday terms it means I want it to "shine like my 59"!

Gary

jaxo, it may be that your pans are filthy on the underside. Years of hard greasy residue. Scrape them clean too. If your pans are clean, you have much less transfer of gunk onto your induction glass top.

I don't cook with filthy pans. The kitchen spray cleaner I was using just seemed to leave a cloudy, streaky residue behind.
Soap and water worked and didn't leave any residue after going over the area again with more water and another clean, wet rag and then a dry towel, but it is too time consuming.
I decided to try rubbing alcohol mixed with water in a spray bottle yesterday and so far, it's working well.
I just used a paper towel to wipe off any food particles and heavy grease, then spray the surface with the rubbing alcohol solution and wipe it dry with a clean cloth or paper towel.

If you are using glass cleaner, according to Bosch it should be free of ammonia or chlorine, which will etch the surface.

I've used 409 with no issues.

perhaps I use more elbow grease. I have no problem avoiding streaks. I always try to underuse soaps and detergents. It works for me.

Are you cleaning it regularly with the cooktop cleaner? After using it for years on my old ceran top, i found I was doing it the wrong way. The instructions for my induction were to wipe an amount of the cleaner over the cooktop, then buff it clean. It leaves a protective layer which makes it easier to wipe stuff off after. (I used to rinse it off, which didn't leave the protective finish).

uylk

I found if I use a microfiber towel after cleaning with a very small amount of soap and water, streaks disappear. Also fewer streaks and easier to clean if you to until cooktop is cold to clean.