Transferring voicemails to laptop

I've spent far too long trying to find an answer online and the local Microsoft store techs couldn't even figure out how to do what seems like it should be so simple: being able to monitor/hear voicemails being transferred to a windows 7 laptop using microsoft's built-in Sound Recorder and a 3.5 connector cable between the laptop and the cellphone (happens to be an iPhone 4).

The voicemail transfers fine, sound wise, I just don't know when to cut off the recording because I'm not able to hear it. There is a crude recording level display of sorts that appears but it's too small to be useful, can't see when the signal stops at the end.

I tried to go by the number of seconds the voicemail is, but that's too rough since I can't be sure when the message actually starts playing.

I know I can use Audacity but I have about 15 VMs to transfer and would rather use the simple interface of Sound Recorder if that's possible.

Anyone have any knowledge about this?