Goals from Sone Aluko, Chris Martin and Neeskens Kabano were enough to dent Preston's play-off hopes, despite a Tom Barkhuizen goal giving the away side a lifeline.
David Button was a lucky man early on when his botched clearance fell to the feet of in-form man Aiden McGeady, but the Irishman's strike was weak and Tim Ream was able to clear the ball before it reached its intended destination.
Fulham had their first decent chance on 11 minutes when Ryan Fredericks' ball in ricocheted around the Preston box, hitting Sone Aluko before eventually bouncing into the arms of Chris Maxwell in the away side's goal.
But it would be the hosts who got ahead first when some lovely skill saw Neeskens Kebano turn his man to make space for the pullback to Aluko, who slotted the ball into the net from seven yards out.
Kevin McDonald should have perhaps hit the target when he was teed up on the edge of the area by Stefan Johansen, but the midfielder pulled his strike just wide of the left hand post with seven minutes left in the half.
Tomas Kalas then went close when his flick on hit the post from a Kebano corner before Preston broke, with Button on hand to make an easy save from a McGeady strike.
The Cottagers started the second half as they finished the first and came close when Kebano unleashed a fierce drive which Maxwell had to push onto the post and away for a corner.
The home side had their second on the hour mark when Fredericks played Martin in with a lovely ball - the striker finding himself with time and space which allowed him to slot it under Maxwell and double the advantage.
It only took Preston eight minutes, however, to halve the deficit when Barkhuizen found himself through one-on-one with Button, making no mistake about sitting the ball into the bottom left hand corner.
But Fulham then got their two goal cushion back when Aluko turned provider to play in Kebano, who slotted the ball home to send the Cottage into raptures.
