diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 3fde95d..3ccf09e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -72,6 +72,17 @@ To install for __Python 3__, execute the following:
 
 	sudo pip3 install -r requirements.txt
     sudo python3 setup.py install
+    
+To install this tool in a [virtual environment](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/virtualenv), execute the following steps:
+
+    # Set up the virtual environment. Replace $python_global with the path to your Python executable. "venv" is the name of the subdirectory that will be created, and can be anything.
+    $python_global -m virtualenv venv
+    . venv/bin/activate
+    pip install -r requirements.txt
+    # Tell distutils to use the current environment's Python executable,
+    # which will then be handled by virtualenv.
+    python setup.py build -e "/usr/bin/env python"
+    python setup.py install
 
 ## Known Issues
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index f333fb8..27ef80d 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,7 +1,12 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 
 from mp import version
-from distutils.core import setup
+try:
+    from setuptools import setup
+except ImportError:
+    from distutils.core import setup
+
+
 
 setup(name='mpfshell',
       version=version.FULL,