A site containing a large number of files, possibly acquired over time, and often publicly accessible. Or a file which contains a number of related files, usually in a compressed format to reduce file size and transmission (upload or download) time on electronic bulletin boards or download sites on the Internet. Most software which is distributed as shareware (or similar concepts) is distributed as an archive which contains all related programs, as well as documentation and possibly data files. Archived files, because of the compression, appear to be encrypted and therefore infected files inside archives may not be detected by virus or malware scanning software.

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