Search a folder that is excluded from Spotlight
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