Apple Computer released software yesterday that will allow users of its new Mac computers to run the Windows XP operating system and programs that were previously available for use only on Windows computers.

Called Boot Camp, Apple’s new software is available for download at the company’s Web site and is scheduled for inclusion in the next update of the Mac operating system. The software allows owners of new Apple computers, ones with Intel processors inside, to run Microsoft’s operating system natively.

Analysts rated the move as significant for the company because it could tempt computer buyers who had previously resisted buying a Mac because they want to use programs that don’t work on the Mac computer, which holds less than 5% of the PC market.

“There are a lot of users who, in the past, wouldn’t consider switching to a Mac because they need applications that don’t run on a Mac,” an analyst with the research firm Yankee Group, Nitin Gupta, said. Mr. Gupta pointed to computer gamers as a major new market for new Mac buyers, because game designers have frequently overlooked or ignored the Mac operating system.

Mac owners will still have to buy a copy of Windows XP to take advantage of the function that Apple has made possible with the Boot Camp download; the company said in a statement yesterday that it does not intend to get into the business of selling or supporting the Windows XP operating system.

Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, Philip Schiller, said in a statement released by the company that Boot Camp “makes the Mac even more appealing to Windows users considering making the switch.”

The move is a departure for a company that doesn’t usually acknowledge the Windows-using universe. But Mac fans had been anticipating such an announcement ever since Apple announced that it would switch to using Intel processors last year. Some Mac sites had even sponsored contests with cash rewards for the first programmer to figure out how to perform the trick.

For years, there have been “emulation” software programs that can run Windows on a Mac – but such programs have typically been slow because they perform processor-intensive tasks of mimicking the actions performed by a different type of processor.

With Boot Camp, on the other hand, Windows programs could run just as fast as they would on a computer bought from Dell or Hewlett-Packard. For instance, Apple’s new MacBook Pro computer is one of the fastest laptops on the market; Boot Camp might also make it the fastest Windows-running laptop on the market.

Apple has not said whether it plans to support Windows Vista, the delayed new operating system from Microsoft scheduled for release next year.