One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates software installation using embedded user credentials. The system receives a software installation package at a computer to be installed on the computer. The system then extracts an installation program from the software installation package. Next, the system determines if the current user has sufficient privileges to run the installation program. If not, the system recovers a set of user credentials from the software installation package that is associated with sufficient privileges to run the installation program. The system then authenticates to the computer using this set of user credentials. Finally, the system runs the installation program on the computer.