One way to minimize retrieval of ads and other html annoyances is with a local proxy. I personally use the free
Proxomitron (others are available as well), which I find is very stable and does a decent job with the default configuration (it is also very easy to reconfigure).
What web pages don't store properly?
Editing stored Excel documents works fine in our testing, both externally and internal to Ultra Recall. If editing them within Ultra Recall, the Save button on Excel Toolbar will save your changes to the temp file, navigating to a different Info Item or exiting Ultra Recall will cause Ultra Recall to update its stored copy.