diff --git a/wp-admin/install.php b/wp-admin/install.php
index 3e0d2d5b2..e4275b50a 100644
--- a/wp-admin/install.php
+++ b/wp-admin/install.php
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 <?php
-$_wp_installing = 1;
+define('WP_INSTALLING', true);
 if (!file_exists('../wp-config.php')) 
     die("There doesn't seem to be a <code>wp-config.php</code> file. I need this before we can get started. Need more help? <a href='http://wordpress.org/docs/faq/#wp-config'>We got it</a>. You can <a href='setup-config.php'>create a <code>wp-config.php</code> file through a web interface</a>, but this doesn't work for all server setups. The safest way is to manually create the file.");
 
diff --git a/wp-admin/setup-config.php b/wp-admin/setup-config.php
index 17adfac7b..5a6826dc0 100644
--- a/wp-admin/setup-config.php
+++ b/wp-admin/setup-config.php
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 <?php
-$_wp_installing = 1;
+define('WP_INSTALLING', true);
 
 if (file_exists('../wp-config.php')) 
 	die("The file 'wp-config.php' already exists. If you need to reset any of the configuration items in this file, please delete it first.");
diff --git a/wp-admin/upgrade.php b/wp-admin/upgrade.php
index 27eef908e..32ea6e8a0 100644
--- a/wp-admin/upgrade.php
+++ b/wp-admin/upgrade.php
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 <?php
-$_wp_installing = 1;
+define('WP_INSTALLING', true);
 if (!file_exists('../wp-config.php')) die("There doesn't seem to be a wp-config.php file. Double check that you updated wp-config-sample.php with the proper database connection information and renamed it to wp-config.php.");
 require('../wp-config.php');
 timer_start();
diff --git a/wp-includes/functions.php b/wp-includes/functions.php
index f767bcb5a..a6325d2a9 100644
--- a/wp-includes/functions.php
+++ b/wp-includes/functions.php
@@ -303,7 +303,7 @@ function url_to_postid($url = '') {
 
 function get_settings($setting) {
   global $wpdb, $cache_settings, $cache_nonexistantoptions;
-	if ( strstr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 'wp-admin/install.php') )
+	if ( strstr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 'wp-admin/install.php') || constant('WP_INSTALLING') )
 		return false;
 
 	if ( empty($cache_settings) )