can I safely delete exe, dmg, zip files?

Yes.

What exe files do you have?

OS X is not able to run them. So from a Mac point of view they are totally worthless.

Allan

Delete them once the software has been installed to free up hard drive space.

Yes, stuff in your downloads folders are harmless when deleted. Unless for some strange reason you decide to install adobe apps INSIDE your downlaod folder.... assuming it would even let you do so 😝

.dmg are Disc iMaGe files, Zip are compressed file/folder packages, and exe are binary EXEcutable files that are only for dos/windows based environments. Looks like you must have clicked on a lot of wrong download links by accident.

David Calkins wrote:

can I safely get rid of these type files?

The issue is not, "is it safe to delete a certain file type?", but "is it prudent to delete certain files?". IOW, it's not the file type that's important, but what the file is and what it does.

For instance, say you found on the 'net a shareware application called "Jabberwocky", which does one particular task you absolutely need. You download Jabberwocky.dmg, install the app, test it, pay your shareware fee, and then delete the .dmg download. A week later, you're on a deadline, something goes wrong -- a corrupt file, a crashed hard drive -- and you need to re-install Jabberwocky to keep working. You go to the developer's web site to download it again -- but, surprise, surprise, the site is off-line, and the developer is on a two-week no-electronics holiday, trekking through the Takla-Makan. What do you do?

The prudent thing to do is to go through your Downloads folders, sort your files, archive to an optical disk or another hard drive those you might need again, and trash those that are of no further use.