diff --git a/core/includes/install.core.inc b/core/includes/install.core.inc
index 5defe93..b49662d 100644
--- a/core/includes/install.core.inc
+++ b/core/includes/install.core.inc
@@ -1176,6 +1176,26 @@ function _install_select_profile($profiles) {
   elseif (!empty($_POST['profile']) && isset($profiles[$_POST['profile']])) {
     return $profiles[$_POST['profile']]->name;
   }
+  else {
+    // Check for a profile marked "exclusive" and ensure that only one profile
+    // is marked as such.
+    $exclusive_profile = NULL;
+    foreach ($profiles as $profile) {
+      $profile_info = install_profile_info($profile->name);
+      if (!empty($profile_info['exclusive'])) {
+        if (empty($exclusive_profile)) {
+          $exclusive_profile = $profile->name;
+        }
+        else {
+          // We found more than one profile with an "exclusive" property.
+          // There's no way to choose between them, so we ignore the property
+          // altogether.
+          return;
+        }
+      }
+    }
+    return $exclusive_profile;
+  }
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/core/includes/install.inc b/core/includes/install.inc
index 330fc0e..4079418 100644
--- a/core/includes/install.inc
+++ b/core/includes/install.inc
@@ -883,6 +883,10 @@ function drupal_check_module($module) {
  * - distribution_name: The name of the Drupal distribution that is being
  *   installed, to be shown throughout the installation process. Defaults to
  *   'Drupal'.
+ * - exclusive: If the install profile is intended to be the only eligible
+ *   choice in a distribution, setting exclusive = TRUE will auto-select it
+ *   during installation, and the install profile selection screen will be
+ *   skipped.
  *
  * Note that this function does an expensive file system scan to get info file
  * information for dependencies. If you only need information from the info