I've put together a few tips and tweaks in this post that may be useful. Just small stuff that's been coming up in a number of threads. Please feel free to add helpful bits and pieces you've found. 
Windowed Mode
Yes, the game can be run in windowed mode. In order to enable it, you need to go into your documents folder and open a file named settings.txt (use Notepad or Wordpad, not Word). On a standard Windows installation, it is located at: C:\Users\<Name>\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Crusader Kings II where <name> is your Windows user name. Change the line that says "fullScreen=yes" to "fullScreen=no" (minus the quotation marks) and save. You may want to select a different resolution for this, too.
Performance boosts
If you're running the game on an older computer or a laptop, you may notice some "lag" or low framerates (game feels sluggish). If this the case for you, you can improve the performance by turning off the trees. Open settings.txt in your documents folder (see above for where to find it) and change the line "draw_trees=yes" to "draw_trees=no" (without the quotation marks). You should notice a substantial performance boost.
(You may notice some other options here, but not all of them are actually used by the game. Shadows and bloom, for example, are not currently supported, so turning them on or off will not have an impact on your playing experience.)
Different location for save files and screenshots
By default, the game puts the save files and screenshots into your documents folder (see Windows Mode paragraph above). If you would prefer them to be kept in a different location, you can change this. Here is how:
Go to the location of the actual game files (where the executable is). A common location is C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\crusader kings ii. Here, manually create a plain text file named userdir.txt. In this text file, put the path of where you would like the game to put save files and screenshots, e.g. D:\Miscellaneous\CK2stuff\. (You can delete the folder in My Documents and restart the game, it will create its files in the new location.)
IMPORTANT: Before you do this, backup your save games, screenshots, etc, so that nothing is lost!
File Locations on Mac OS X
The executable is in ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/Crusader Kings II/ck2.app
The user files (settings.txt, error logs, saved games, gfx) are in Users/<UserName>/Documents/Paradox Interactive/Crusader Kings II/
To see ~/Library/ go to the Finder, hit command-shift-G (ie Go To) and type in ~/Library/ .
File Locations on Linux
Executable, DLCs and Mod upload folder:
/home/user/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common/Crusader Kings II/
The "Documents" equivalent is:
/home/user/.paradoxinteractive/Crusader Kings II/
NOW:
~/.local/share/Paradox Interactive/Crusader Kings II
How to find the local copy of your Cloud savegames (whether Ironman or not):
C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/userdata/<YOUR STEAM ID>/203770/remote/save games/
How to access and delete your saved games in the Steam Cloud:
http://gaming.stackexchange.com/que...ck-way-to-delete-saves-off-of-the-steam-cloud
Custom resolutions
CK2's engine allows you to create a custom resolution, which for example would be useful if you want to emulate a borderless window mode (not directly supported) or double the text size without making everything look too blurry. This can be simply done by opening the settings.txt file (see above for where to find it) and changing the "x" and "y" variables near the top of the file. "x" is the width and "y" is the height. Note that the smallest supported values are 1024 (for "x") and 768 (for "y"). (Kudos to ewphoenix123 for this tip!)
Windowed Mode
Yes, the game can be run in windowed mode. In order to enable it, you need to go into your documents folder and open a file named settings.txt (use Notepad or Wordpad, not Word). On a standard Windows installation, it is located at: C:\Users\<Name>\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Crusader Kings II where <name> is your Windows user name. Change the line that says "fullScreen=yes" to "fullScreen=no" (minus the quotation marks) and save. You may want to select a different resolution for this, too.
Performance boosts
If you're running the game on an older computer or a laptop, you may notice some "lag" or low framerates (game feels sluggish). If this the case for you, you can improve the performance by turning off the trees. Open settings.txt in your documents folder (see above for where to find it) and change the line "draw_trees=yes" to "draw_trees=no" (without the quotation marks). You should notice a substantial performance boost.
(You may notice some other options here, but not all of them are actually used by the game. Shadows and bloom, for example, are not currently supported, so turning them on or off will not have an impact on your playing experience.)
Different location for save files and screenshots
By default, the game puts the save files and screenshots into your documents folder (see Windows Mode paragraph above). If you would prefer them to be kept in a different location, you can change this. Here is how:
Go to the location of the actual game files (where the executable is). A common location is C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\crusader kings ii. Here, manually create a plain text file named userdir.txt. In this text file, put the path of where you would like the game to put save files and screenshots, e.g. D:\Miscellaneous\CK2stuff\. (You can delete the folder in My Documents and restart the game, it will create its files in the new location.)
IMPORTANT: Before you do this, backup your save games, screenshots, etc, so that nothing is lost!
File Locations on Mac OS X
The executable is in ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/Crusader Kings II/ck2.app
The user files (settings.txt, error logs, saved games, gfx) are in Users/<UserName>/Documents/Paradox Interactive/Crusader Kings II/
To see ~/Library/ go to the Finder, hit command-shift-G (ie Go To) and type in ~/Library/ .
File Locations on Linux
Executable, DLCs and Mod upload folder:
/home/user/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common/Crusader Kings II/
The "Documents" equivalent is:
NOW:
~/.local/share/Paradox Interactive/Crusader Kings II
How to find the local copy of your Cloud savegames (whether Ironman or not):
C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/userdata/<YOUR STEAM ID>/203770/remote/save games/
How to access and delete your saved games in the Steam Cloud:
http://gaming.stackexchange.com/que...ck-way-to-delete-saves-off-of-the-steam-cloud
Custom resolutions
CK2's engine allows you to create a custom resolution, which for example would be useful if you want to emulate a borderless window mode (not directly supported) or double the text size without making everything look too blurry. This can be simply done by opening the settings.txt file (see above for where to find it) and changing the "x" and "y" variables near the top of the file. "x" is the width and "y" is the height. Note that the smallest supported values are 1024 (for "x") and 768 (for "y"). (Kudos to ewphoenix123 for this tip!)
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