Turns out it was available and it immediately changed my name! But the problem was, it sent a PIN and welcome message through SMS, without offering anyway to confirm the e-mail address change. What's worse, when it asked my to verify my password after selecting the e-mail address, the address had already been changed? THERE IS NO WAY TO VERIFY YOUR IDENTITY when changing your outlook.com e-mail address!

So I want to change it back. I went to account.live.com with the new Metro account management page. As of now, I am unable to change back into my original Microsoft Account name.

One more thing to clarify: the previous e-mail is linked as a linked Microsoft Account. Though when I click it with the account picker, it refreshes the page and does nothing. Meaning, I cannot return to my previous e-mail's inbox or anything. This is from within the outlook.com client.

Old: *** Email address is removed for privacy ***, my desired e-mail address as of this writing.

New: *** Email address is removed for privacy ***

Please help!