You're better of using a matching regex rather than a split:
@arr = $str =~ /(\w|\[\w+\])/g;
Update: thanks to monarch for pointing this out. The above leaves the brackets behind. One option is to split the capture and filter out the undefs thus:
@arr = grep $_, $str =~ /(\w)|\[(\w+)\]/g;
--
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My friends all rate Windows, I must disagree.
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