Can Spotlight be configured to index /System/Library/CoreServices?

Question

With Quicksilver (and other launchers of that type) you can configure it to index applications from places other than /Applications. I often like to launch things from /System/Library/CoreServices directly, like Software Update. Is there any way to configure Spotlight -- perhaps through the command-line -- to index the applications in that directory?

Answer 1

Spotlight does index system files by default, but they're just not displayed in the GUI:

$ mdfind -name "software update" | head -n 2
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist
/System/Library/CoreServices/Software Update.app

There's an option to include system files in Finder's Spotlight windows:

I don't know any way to make that the default though. (Or to include them at all in the Spotlight menu.)

One workaround would be to make aliases of everything in CoreServices to somewhere like /Applications/CoreServices/.