ARJ files are compressed archives. They were very common in the past. They can be opened with ARJ software or modern archiving programs like WinRAR or WinZip. Make sure your software is up-to-date to open ARJ files.
ARJ has advantages. It compresses files efficiently up to 80 percent of original size. It supports long filenames and multiple archives. It can password-protect and add comments to archives.
ARJ was designed by Robert Jung in the 1990s for compressed archives. It had many features. ARJ is currently on version 2.86 for DOS and 3.20 for Windows. It supports 16-bit, 32-bit and 64-bit Intel systems. ARJ was one of many compression utilities then later replaced by RAR and ZIP.
The ARJ file format belongs to the compressed files category created by ARJ Software. It is found on systems like Windows, Linux and Mac OS. Programs like 7-Zip, Zipeg, ARJ32 and StuffIt Deluxe can handle ARJ files if iArchiver cannot be used.
ARJ files are useful for backing up or sharing many files as there is only a single file to handle instead of tracking all those files. The .arj extension is used. An ARJ file contains a main header and local headers before each file.
You can associate the ARJ extension to software in the Windows Registry to open unknown ARJ files. Many files contain only simple text data.
ARJ Software