diff -u b/core/includes/install.inc b/core/includes/install.inc
--- b/core/includes/install.inc
+++ b/core/includes/install.inc
@@ -1087,6 +1087,7 @@
       'version' => NULL,
       'hidden' => FALSE,
       'php' => DRUPAL_MINIMUM_PHP,
+      'config_install' => FALSE,
     ];
     $profile_file = drupal_get_path('profile', $profile) . "/$profile.info.yml";
     $info = \Drupal::service('info_parser')->parse($profile_file);
@@ -1100,9 +1101,10 @@
 
     $info['dependencies'] = array_unique(array_merge($required, $info['dependencies'], $locale));
 
-    // If the profile has a config/sync directory use that to install drupal.
+    // If the 'config_install' info is set to TRUE and the profile has a
+    // config/sync directory, use that to install drupal.
     $profile_path = drupal_get_path('profile', $profile);
-    if (is_dir($profile_path . '/config/sync')) {
+    if ($info['config_install'] && is_dir($profile_path . '/config/sync')) {
       $info['profile_sync'] = $profile_path . '/config/sync';
       $sync = new FileStorage($profile_path . '/config/sync');
       $info['config']['system.site'] = $sync->read('system.site');