Search a folder that is excluded from Spotlight I have excluded a folder from Spotlight, because this folder has a lot of files so it often fills up the results, no matter what I'm searching for. 

However, sometimes I still want to search this folder. So, I tried opening the folder in Finder, then searching using the box in the top-right corner of the window, then selecting Search: "Folder_name" to limit the results to just that folder.

This method does not show any results, however. I assume it's because the folder is excluded from Spotlight search. So, is there any way that I can perform a manual search on the folder still, whenever necessary?
If you're happy with the terminal you can use the find command.

Something like opening Terminal in Utilities.

cd &lt;folder name&gt;
find . -name &lt;whatever you're searching for&gt;


Once found you can open it up with open

So, I can do something like:

alex@smiley:~|⇒  cd Desktop
alex@smiley:~/Desktop|⇒  find . -name Mac*
./Mac Pro.spx
alex@smiley:~/Desktop|⇒  open Mac\ Pro.spx


Notice that I used the * as a wildcard to match all files starting with Mac