One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates automated software installation on a remote computer over the Internet. The system operates by first initializing the remote computer with a custom operating system, which allows access to the remote computer over the Internet. Next, the system provides an archive locator to the remote computer, wherein the archive locator is a uniform resource locator (URL) or a proprietary resource locator. The system then requests an archive from the site specified by the archive locator. This archive includes an operating system and desired software packages pre-configured for the remote computer. The system downloads this archive to the remote computer and re-initializes the remote computer with the operating system and software packages in the archive.