A method for managing storage of an operating system in an integrated circuit card, includes: subdividing an operating system into a plurality of operating system components; associating one or more operating system components of the plurality of operating system components to a descriptor indicating a version of the one or more operating system components; downloading the one or more operating system components to a memory of the integrated circuit card, wherein the downloading includes verifying if an operating system component stored in the integrated circuit card is a same version of the one or more operating system components being downloaded; based on the verifying, storing the one or more operating system components in the card if the version is different; and based on the verifying discarding the one or more operating system components from the download operation if the version is the same.